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

from the reverse-streisand? dept

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."
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    shmengie, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:17pm

    i have a huge nose. is that part of the streisand effect?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Nismoto, 2 Sep 2008 @ 3:32pm

    Re:

    The Reverse Streisand Effect would be a huge nose in the @ss.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    @7thScreen, 2 Sep 2008 @ 11:37pm

    Re: Re: Deep Focus

    That is correct... Deep Focus and / or AMC did not originate a Streisand campaign.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.