Another thing I wanted to pass along from Pop Candy...
Evidently, AMC is not happy with some folks who had personas on Twitter reflecting characters from the hit series Mad Men. Read Whitney's story for all the details.
Here's my take...It's an interesting debate whether people's avatars should be allowed to impersonate fictional characters. I don't think it's a big deal. People impersonate others all the time. If I opened an email account with the name Superman2008 and sent an email to my friends saying I was from the planet Krypton and that I was a flying crime fighter, do you really think DC Comics would care? What would I be hurting?
Now don't get me wrong, obviously AMC feels they are in the right because people posing as characters from a popular TV show on a popular social network could be seen as a form of advertising.
That's the most fascinating part of this story to me. The blurring lines of communication between "friends" and and perceived advertising/social media marketing. Who's to say that a Twitter promotional campaign wasn't in the works for the show (although I doubt it since the popular series is set in the 60's).
The main thing to realize here is that with the evolution of social media and its place in our everyday lives it is becoming harder to distinguish what is real and what isn't (and who is real and who isn't).
But there in lies the beauty of the digital era that is upon us. The medium truly is the message.
2 comments:
-looks like AMC "get's it" now. . . According to this mornings Media Life: 'Mad' world once more: AMC lifts Twitter restrictions
After attempting to quiet Twitter users who are fans of "Mad Men," AMC has decided that the tweets might be creating some much-needed buzz about the critically acclaimed show, which has an Emmy nomination but lacks viewers. Some users of the microblogging service Twitter had adopted the voice of different characters for their daily updates, and fans of the show were following their tweets until AMC filed a takedown notice earlier this week. Despite concerns from the cable channel's legal department over copyright, AMC reconsidered the wisdom of alienating these fans. Silicon Alley Insider reports that AMC has decided to allow Twitter to reactivate the “Mad” accounts after the cable channel’s web marketing agency, Deep Focus, convinced AMC that fans promoting the show on their own and for free was a good thing. The show revolves around characters who work in a fictional 1960s Madison Avenue ad agency.
Good post. You have a way with the written word.
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