Was The Mad Men Twitter Takedown Part Of An Advertising Strategy?

from the reverse-streisand? dept

Tue, Sep 2nd 2008 2:03pm — Mike Masnick

We've talked about the concept of a reverse Streisand Effect, where a company purposely pretends to be outraged and demands to take something down in order to generate more attention for it, and now there's some evidence suggesting that last week's DMCA takedown notices for the "fake" Mad Men Twitter accounts may have been part of AMC's own marketing strategy. Buried at the bottom of a NY Times article about what happened, there's a hint that the whole thing was planned out, as following a request from the Times reporter, Brian Stelter, to one of the "fake" users for an interview, that character "referred all questions to Deep Focus, a Web marketing agency that works for AMC."

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Filed Under: commercials, mad men, reverse streisand effect, streisand effect, takedowns
Companies: amc, twitter

13 Comments

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hegemon13, 2 Sep 2008 @ 2:25pm

Why "reverse"?
Why the "reverse" Streisand effect? It is still the same effect, just done deliberately. The are utilizing the effect, not the reverse of it.

Not really important, just curious.
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Pete Valle, 2 Sep 2008 @ 2:47pm

Streisand Effect
Well, it's about time somebody figured out that the Streisand effect could be used in your favor. If this is true, kudos to Deep Focus for an innovative strategy.
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Video Savant, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:16pm

DMCA Abuse?
Wouldn't this be an abuse of the DMCA?

While there might not be any direct harm done here, it does bother me that the same media organizations that aggressively use DMCA -- in ways that often undermine fair use -- would then turn around and use DMCA mechanisms in a patently fraudulent way for the sole purpose of generating free publicity.

There should be a way to punish companies that play these sort of games with the DMCA.
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shmengie, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:17pm

i have a huge nose. is that part of the streisand effect?
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Nismoto, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:32pm

Re:
The Reverse Streisand Effect would be a huge nose in the @ss.
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Nismoto, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:37pm

Deep Focus
They were already mentioned in the linked article in your previous post about this (8/26/08)

Supposedly, Deep Focus "encouraged" AMC to rescind their take-down assault.
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GeneralEmergency (profile), 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:40pm

Re: DMCA Abuse?
Yes. Their copyright should be invalidated and marked as public domain. Ohhh...wait. I forgot. Congress never created a Public Domain registry.
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LTDLP, 2 Sep 2008 @ 4:27pm

Re: DMCA Abuse?
Video Savant -> "use DMCA mechanisms in a patently fraudulent way"

I suspect that this business process has already been patented.
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Don Draper, 2 Sep 2008 @ 5:00pm

The TD story made me watch this weekend and now I'm hooked.
BTW The story revolves around a PR firm so I doubt some of the marketing nuance of a Streisand effect is not lost. Although it is set in 1960 before this interweb thing came along.
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August West, 2 Sep 2008 @ 11:33pm

Re: Deep Focus
As a writer, we admire Brian's work, but his conclusion was incorrect. We're not well-connected. @Don_Draper was just uncharacteristically cautious.
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@7thScreen, 2 Sep 2008 @ 11:37pm

Re: Re: Deep Focus
That is correct... Deep Focus and / or AMC did not originate a Streisand campaign.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2008 @ 8:08am

Good Show . . .
I dunno about this stunt, but I have no real issue with it one way or the other. I do like the show though. Yeah its a silly soap opra when it comes down to it, but its a really good one.
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Michael, 18 Sep 2008 @ 10:50am

Mad Men
Marketers and companies are still trying to figure out how to use SoMe effectively. AMC backing down and letting the fiction run is the smartest move I've seen regarding a social network yet. I Follow and am Followed by the characters and it has kept me engaged with the show. It's also instigated my search for other fictional characters "official", "tactical" or just fans. All I've found so far that may be show related is www.twitter.com/robinson_crusoe.
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