Techdirt this morning has a story about Disney using anonymous quotes from IMDB in ads for it’s movies:
Disney has now been caught trying out a new tactic: using quotes from anonymous internet commenters on IMDB. These “commenters” could be, for example, Disney employees, but go under usernames like “Theedge-4″ and “Mjavfc1.”
Maybe I have too much faith in human kind, but won’t people see straight through this?
It seems to me that this is an egregious example of old world thinking in marketing.
Sad. Undermines our trust in ‘real’ reviews as well which has disturbing implications for businesses working in that area.
When we go live in early 2009, this issue won’t arise, because we will offer live content quoted from the horses mouths’ of the celebrities involved within the films themselves, which will be much more interesting.
My epitaph will be ‘user-generated content isn’t the answer, it’s user- generated advertising which holds the key’. Also is it just me, or do Amazon and IMDB etc. have a complete style bypass problem?
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Interesting how transparency is catching out many big brands now… will marcomms finally get the message? I’ve blogged about your post over @ http://www.youth-marketing-buzz.com/2008/10/buzz-words-trust.html
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