You know that moment in every technology based thriller, the one where the master hacker’s computer has that final meltdown, and all that's left on the screen is some wacky animation set up by a rival to just rub salt in their wounds?

Imagine if that principle could be applied to say, advertising. I don't mean in that master hacker sense, but in the sense that by clicking on an ad or going to a website, you (and by you, I mean the smart tech-savvy Internet browsing 'you') get drawn into an interactive experience that’s both engaging for the viewer, and entertainingly effective at pushing a product.

That outcome is here, in the form of the Lynx Effect Party Across the Internet campaign (www.partyacrosstheinternet.com). Many of you might recognize the brand name Lynx (owned by the company Unilever) by its American name Axe, which is the name it carries everywhere except New Zealand, Ireland, Australia, and the United Kingdom due to problems with the trademark. However, it is the Australian branch of the company that has launched one of the most entertaining pieces of marketing I’ve seen in quite a while.

In what is essentially an expanded version of the commercial above, which you may have seen making the television rounds this year, the viral ad experience takes you from party to party in the course of a couple of nights, using websites to fill in the blanks of what happened to you the night before. 

The experience starts on a fake website for Australian men’s magazine Ralph, set to a remix of KiD CuDi's Day n' Nite. Cleverly placed all over the page and masquerading as articles, are the clues to what you’re about to get into.

However, before you can read too deeply, your normal browser is interrupted by a tow truck pulling into the middle of the screen. It’s pretty jarring at first, but becomes intriguing when the truck's passenger gets out, picks up an unconscious man from the rear of the vehicle and throws him into an advertisement box on the side of the site.

This will be your avatar for what is about to transpire. In the confines of the ad box, your character showers off the previous night’s indiscretions, and as his flashbacks reveal what he’s forgotten, your browser literally melts in to the next part of the journey.

What follows is a story that brings you through several recognizable places on the internet, with the next stop being Quiksilver (the clothing company) where a pool party literally spills out of its video box. While at the party you have to compete in a chicken fight against a female opponent. 

The next stop deposits you on a fake myspace page, where after traveling to a country bar, you end up in a pillow fight (my favorite minigame) with a kinky girl who’s more interested in dressing you up like a horse. 

From there you are transported to a mockup of Heavy.com (a youtube/funnyordie like website) where your flirtations get you into a fist fight, cycling the character back to his starting state of being knocked out in the back of a stranger’s pick up.

Finally you end up being transported to the facebook fan page for Lynx, where you can leave feedback on the campaign and see what everyone else thought about it.

Lynx brand hired the independent Australian based company Soap Creative (www.soap.com.au) to construct this unique brand of viral campaign. Soap Creative (whose website is pretty clever in its own right) specializes in interactive web pages and games for consumers. However, this seems to be one of their first projects to combine animated images, interactive first person games, and advertising.

If you have a moment, I suggest stopping by Soap Creative’s site and checking out some of the other projects in their favorite sections. It’s interesting because it gives you a great deal of insight into what they can accomplish as well as some sites that are blatant precursors to several of the components that make up the Lynx campaign.

In the end though, it comes down to the final question in all advertising: Did it work?

To be honest, it did. The level of the interactive aspect is something I’ve never seen before with any ad campaign. It draws the player in, in a way that a simple ad box, talking banner, or even optional game might not.

Truthfully, it’s a fun five minutes  - possibly ten, depending on the speed of your computer -  and the graphics are pretty decent. (My roommate remarked that they reminded him of something you might find on the old Sega CD gaming system, and I think that’s right on the button.)

While I might not be running out to buy some Axe/Lynx body wash right away, I must admit this is a catchy way to suck their demographic in and make them spend more time thinking about the product by involving them in the story itself, instead of just showing them another lame advertisement. Let’s face it, in the age of Hulu and DVR, a time when people skip most of their commercials, it’s very smart to allow the consumer to participate in the narrative of the ad.

It’s definitely something you won’t want to skip through.