Remember, webheads can read your code

The New York Times (if you're without a NYTimes login you can view it here) reports that GM's national teaser campaign, where each day a billboard somewhere in the US would reveal a new word of the "secret" phrase, has been figured out. The billboards direct people to findthemessage.com which uses Flash to show where the new billboard is and what part of the message is revealed on it.

Webheads quickly discovered that the "secret" message was in the site's flash source code.

In a posting on the site's bulletin boards, a Web surfer using the name "J1mmy" wrote that the message was: "This is the last time you will ever have to feel alone on our nation's roadways."

The meaning, J1mmy speculated, was that all new G.M. vehicles would soon be equipped with OnStar, the factory-installed safety and communications system that is already available in many models.

"They did crack the code," said Rob Peterson, a communications manager at G.M. "We expected it to be solved, we just didn't expect it to be solved in this manner."

It was rather silly of the web people to have put it there in the first place really. Although, apparently there is another sentence that went unread that is a part of the secret message...so the cat isn't totally out of the bag.

Still, as an overall teaser campaign, I find this kind of bizarre. With a different part of the message revealed in a different part of the country the only way to even get a grasp on what the heck is going on is to go to the website. Seems like a lot of effort for people to taken on, unless G.M. drivers are hard core enough to really care that much. Of course, there is a decent about of chatter on the message boards on the site. So, perhaps it's not that odd after all.

On the boards, the discussion has turned more towards what the second half of the message is. Some think that it's either going to reveal that GM cars will all have OnStar or XM radio preinstalled. Although I thought GM already did a push of their preinstalled OnStar cars, so it might make sense that it would be XM radio, to compete with Ford and Sirius.

Either way, the lesson learned here is to remember that webheads can read your code. If you've got something you want kept secret- don't leave it where people can access it.