SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

Fake Fictional Twitterers From “Mad Men”

It must be hard owning a brand these days. Everywhere you turn, you hear about how consumers are taking over, how control has shifted away from the owners of products and brands and into the hands of the people who use those products and brands, regardless of whether they love or hate them.

From a consumer standpoint, however, these are exciting times. Last week, I read on a few blogs(subscription needed) about some Twitterers who had shown up using the names of characters on AMC’s sophomore drama “Mad Men.” For those of us who follow this addictive, intense drama, this was exciting news! Don Draper on Twitter? Never mind that for a show with an obsessive eye to detail and factual accuracy, this made no sense - Don Draper is an advertising executive in the 60s, when the delivery of a new copy machine was met with complete and utter befuddlement. It didn’t matter - the “Mad Men” characters on Twitter were simply a very cool extension of the “Mad Men” franchise into a new medium, one that would only encourage fan intensity for this show.

Well, as it turns out, Don Draper on Twitter wasn’t in fact created by AMC, or the writers of “Mad Men”, or anyone else connected with the show. And AMC’s first reaction was to have the accounts taken down. Luckily, they (thanks to their digital agency) changed their mind a few days later and allowed the accounts to be reinstated. As the Silicon Alley Insider said:

What happened? Deep Focus, the Web marketing group that works for AMC, tells us that they gently nudged their client into rescinding the DMCA takedown notice they’d sent to Twitter. See, in Web marketing parlance, the Twitterers assuming the names of Mad Men characters are actually “brand ambassadors” meant to be cultivated, not thwarted.”Better to embrace the community than negate their efforts,” says a Deep Focus spokesman. We agree!

I can understand AMC’s reticence. They’ve spent millions of dollars creating these complex characters, imagining their wardrobes, their anxieties, their ambitions. Why would they be comfortable with these unknown Twitterers hijacking these finely honed identities and tweeting all over the blogosphere?

On the other hand, though, in an age where mass media is rapidly fading and traditional advertising simply doesn’t work, what could be better than having bunch of people love your programming so much that they want to assume the identities of your characters and spread the word about them over the Internet?

Take a deep breath, AMC. It will be OK. Just roll with it. If this doesn’t get you new viewers, I’d be very surprised.