The Hanso Foundation

In the last commercial break of Lost: Two For The Road, ABC ran an ad for the Hanso Foundation, complete with toll-free number: 1-877-HANSORG or 1-877-426-7674.

I finally got through after several failed tries and heard this menu from a polite and vaguely European woman.

Welcome to the Hanso Foundation. Reaching out for a better tommorow. If you know your party’s extension you may enter it now.

General Info – 1
Alvar Hanso – 2
Thomas Werner Middleburk (?) – 3
Hugh McIntyre – 4
Peter Thompson – 5

Thank you and Namaste.

I pressed 2 to “speak” with Alvar Hanso. I got some kind of radio ad, Progressive or Geico Auto Insurance, and then the same woman who was on the menu told me I was getting Alvar Hanso’s voicemail.

Once inside the voicemail I got some kind of rant from someone – a journalist or angry shareholder at a meeting – complaining about Alvar Hanso’s disappearance. The audio quality sucked and the message stopped abruptly.

After this I was dumped back into the main menu. This time when I pressed 1 for more information on the Hanso Foundation, it hung up.

I’ve tried back several times to no avail. I’m sleepy and Jenn is ready to go to bed so I’ll keep trying tomorrow.

Ultimately, I’d like to catalog all the options and the resulting audio behind them, maybe even podcast the whole thing.

Maybe this is all a part of that Lost game we’ve heard so much about. Who knows?

Also, The Hanso Foundation has a new, shiny website with it’s own secrets. I haven’t trolled around much, but RSL has.

Again, potentially more Easter Eggs and alternate reality gaming from the Lost/ABC folks. Only time will tell.

In the meantime, I’d like to find a copy of the on-air Hanso Foundation ad on YouTube tomorrow, podcast the contents of the 877 number and take a deeper look at the new website.

Stay tuned to this blog for updates!

UPDATE: TV Squad does the heavy lifting and produces a recording of the call-in number [mp3].

Also, I’d still really love to do a thorough deconstruction of the Hanso Foundation site, so if you know of any Easter Eggs, drop me a line or leave a comment.

UPDATE: The site has an RSS feed.

I’m still working on all the Easter Eggs. More posts to come.

UPDATE II: As promised, here’s a shitty capture of the Hanso Foundation commercial on YouTube.

UPDATE III: Read my latest Hanso Foundation Update.

28 thoughts on “The Hanso Foundation

  1. Lost: Two For The Road…

    Holy shit what an episode! The densest, most eventful episode of Lost all season long.
    This might take a while to get out, but here are my thoughts:

    Revenge
    In an episode full of Ana Lucia, both in the past and present, it’s good to find out wh…

  2. Klein says:

    Got through to Peter Thompsons voicemail. Woman starts by saying this is Peter’s vmail and that he can’t… then she is strangled by Peter. he goes off on something about Korean Oil and litigation, etc, then it hangs up. On the website, try signing up for the newsletter

  3. The Hanso Foundation part 2…

    This is a follow-up post to the Hanso Foundation post I wrote early this morning.
    Here are the first two “updates” via the Hanso Foundation website’s RSS Feed:
    thehansofoundation.org relaunches
    The Hanso Foundation stands at the vangu…

  4. Nick says:

    I called the number up. Took me about 5 tries to get through. I listened to #1 and could barely understand the first guy that talks. It sounded like he was speaking French. Maybe eluding to a member of Rosseau’s crew? Afterwards, I think they played “The Jumpoff” by Lil’ Kim. I heard the rap music and tried to match the lyrics I heard on Google and that’s what I found. And then I didn’t really pick up on anything else until they hung up. I just found that interesting.

  5. Alyssa says:

    it’s breaking string…but i didn’t hear the rest of the password…when you go to the hanso foundation website, click on the newsletter thing and enter “breaking string”

  6. dolenore says:

    Send Joop a message on the Hanso Foundation website and double click the circles as they are highlighted… you will be able to read executive letters request a formal investigation of the Hanso Foundation by a watchdog organization.

  7. Kevin says:

    Well, I’ve signed in using the breaking strain code before at the Foundation’s site, but I did notice during my visit there, after typing breaking strain again into the login at the bottome right, that the clock turned into the words OBEY, then back. Strange, but I haven’t seen anything else on the web about it. Anyone else seen the clock say Obey?

  8. Jeff & Julie says:

    Ok, we are new here. Thanks for all the great info! Any idea on what needs to be typed in the Mental Health Appeal page…it asks to tell a little bit about your self. I can’t figure out what to type. No matter what I do type it says that the connection has timed out. ??????????

  9. "Him" says:

    If you dont stop looking around at stuff you shouldn’t on the Hanso Foundation Alvar Hanso will make sure you can’t be there anymore.
    Thank You and Namaste

  10. My last Hanso Foundation post (for now)…

    Tonight I’m posting my last full post solely devoted to the Lost Experience alternate reality game or the Hanso Foundation. Mine is not a solely Lost-centric blog, despite recent evidence to the contrary, especially all the Hanso-blogging I&#821…

  11. hurleyfan says:

    on the Board of Directors were it says to login using username and password the password is Inmate Asylum and you dont need a username and then you will once again be with Persephone

  12. Rayj says:

    In the Ice Station at the end of the show when they get the anomaly message I see a code which probably would be the CV Station ID. It looks like 7418580 or 7418680.

  13. Ewan says:

    about the OB:EY time, when the time contains one of the LOST numbers (4 8 15 16 23 42) the display will change to OB:EY if you click on it, it takes you to a very strange site that appears to be of no use at all (www.sublymonal.com).

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