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Ashton Kutcher Punks Twitter: A Giant Million Follower PR Stunt
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by Truemorist | April 17, 2009 at 09:32 am
33081 views | 47 Recommendations | 66 comments
Ashton Kutcher's million Twitter followers did not "just happen".
This is not a story of the "little man" beating out "big media" — this is the story of a major Hollywood celebrity orchestrating a massive, social media publicity campaign that was specifically designed to promote himself, Twitter and, by extension, Ted Turner and CNN.
Today it came to light that Ashton Kutcher received an allegedly "pro bono" donation of 1,133 digital billboards that urged passers-by to follow Kutcher on Twitter.
Photos
The billboards were "donated" by Lamar the the third-largest billboard company in the U.S. and, as of Friday, will reach 34 million impressions. Lamar claims they wanted to support Kutcher's plan to donate malaria nets to charity.
People began noticing the billboards appearing in or near Atlanta (CNN's HQ), Pennsylvania, Detroit, Cincinnati and along the I-75 interstate highway — and they were understandably confused, surprised, and disgusted.
Videos
Follow the Twitter stream of commentary on the appearance of the billboards — and check out a TwitPic of the Kutcher billboard in question.
But not only that, as the race to the million follower finish line approached last night, Twitter users were suspiciously blocked from unfollowing either Ashton or CNN — thus ensuring that one of them would reach the million mark without incident. (Thankfully, today, Dave Winer explained how to unfollow aplusk).
Securing Kutcher's victory, however, was a necessary part of the campaign, as the so-called "King of Twitter" was scheduled to appear on Friday's Oprah Winfrey show to help the talk show queen launch her own Twitter brand.
Needless to say, Twitter users are furious over what appears to have been a much larger and more orchestrated celebrity PR stunt designed to punk Twitter into believing that, as Kutcher declared in his 'victory speech', this supposed milestone is somehow "about a statement that one man can have a voice that's as loud as an entire media company. And you can have that voice as well. And we can all have that voice together. And, and, and we can change media forever."
Great idea, except that this is entirely untrue.
Very very few of us are already multi-millionaire, Hollywood celebrities with huge devoted fanbases and, even fewer of us have access to the networks, contacts, and expensive public relations teams necessary to accomplish what Kutcher & Co have done — and that is to manufacture the biggest news story of the week...out of nothing more than one man's pre-existent fame.
As Simon Dumenco at AdAge accurately observes, "something rather retro" is happening here — Twitter is "reverting to a rather pre-Web 2.0 paradigm: broadcasting. The Few speaking to The Many."
If this guy's at the pinnacle of the Attention Economy, then the Attention Economy needs a bail-out.
Using a new-media tool, Kutcher is leveraging his fame to make himself more famous by declaring his intention to become, well, even more famous -- this time in the statusphere.
Is this the beginning of the end or the advent of new beginnings?
Judging by Friday's rising tides of #backlashton, the tweeps ain't feelin' it. See the chatter below:
Here is what people are are saying about the billboard on Twitter;
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (66)
at 12:41 on April 17th, 2009
for every celebrity on twitter, there are 50 self-claimed marketing SEO "gurus" spamming away, all day and all night. and what do they get for their efforts? UNFOLLOWED.
they would do well to follow @aplusk. he ain't restin' on the laurels of his celebrity. turns out kelso's a marketing visionary. dude's co-created 5 reality tv shows, one of which was so popular, it's brand has become an internationally-used catch phrase. he also co-owns his own production company and is creative director for a tech. start-up in silicon valley.
and now, he's unlocked the power of twitter. not simply by being a celebrity [there are many celebs on twitter, some of whose star status out-ranks kutcher by leaps and bounds, but who have nowhere near the twitter folllowing],but by being an engaging and responsive human who fondles the internet like a pocket-protector weilding don juan. now if only his acting was THAT good... ok, ok; he wasn't bad in "the butterfly effect."
a thought for the sulky marketing "messiahs": through your tears, try to see the potential of how this next-level celebrity voyeurism can benefit your business. don't hate; masturbate [them]! like Lamar did. like Larry King did. like Oprah did. like Ted Turner did. like CNN did. Like Ustream did. like Twitter did. and like all of the wannabe Guy Kawasakis did.
HOWEVER, if you continue to spam me in 140 characters or less and DM links to your free e-books on how to make 500K in two minutes or gain 60,000 followers while taking a dump, ya gonna get punk'd, kid.
at 10:23 on April 17th, 2009
All the twits got punk'd. Now find someone less famous to follow on Twitter. Become sheep.
On the bright side, thanks for helping with the Mosquito nets.
at 10:16 on April 17th, 2009
JOIN #BACKLASHTON TODAY AND END THE MADNESS!!!
at 10:22 on April 17th, 2009
This is a prime example of Asocial Media. This isn't social. It's marketing. It's business.
There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not really that different of a dynamic.
at 10:24 on April 17th, 2009
Is this really a surprise that it's a PR stunt? Everybody involved benefited from the publicity. Nothing wrong iwth that as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who thinks that much of the news that catches people's attention, and particularly entertainment news is by this definition a 'manufactured news story'.
A handful of billboard ads in one market promoting the bid to get 1,000,000 users really isn't going to make much of a difference in the overall number of users except to perhaps accelerate the recent increase a little. The billboards didn't influence the vast majority of users. One way or another someone was going to reach a million sooner or later, but it probably would have been CNN instead.
Also, the inability of people to unfollow in the late stages of the approach to 1,000,000 is easily explained by the fact that a prize was being given to the one millionth follower. They simply were preventing people from unfollowing then trying to time a follow to win the prize. Try unfollowing today, I'm sure you are able. There's really no conspiracy here, just successful PR.
at 15:04 on April 17th, 2009
Actually, I am pissed about this because it detracts from my own efforts at Twitter self-aggrandizement.
My goal was equally lofty, at least for me - the plan was for me to blitz micromedia and motivate new people to follow me on twitter.
My twitter i.d. - madmanmikey
My twitter goal - to have a total of 23 followers by this time next year.
My twitter promise - to update you everytime I post pictures from bellydance events in the Kenosha, Wisconsin area, with roughly one update per month.
Come'on people help me live the dream!!!!!!!!
at 13:13 on April 17th, 2009
Kevin,
You have to think about the implementations of this tactic. If Ashton, who is an average celebrity (to me), can do an internet blitz like this to sucker you and others into joining a 'cause-for-a-cause' then imagine how ad companies will take it a step further. From using just one media, to packaging all of those mediums into one. It's going to be a different advertising world--especially since it was a billboard company that supported it (not to mention Oprah). Gone are the days of little man gets big, you're going to have to be big, to get bigger...just wait and see.
at 13:20 on April 17th, 2009
Well said Kristin. There are a lot of great things that came out of this - not the least of which is the help to prevent malaria. Sure, the average joe won't be able to accumulate followers or leverage traditional media like Kutcher, but this definitely opened some doors and some minds. Personally, I don't think this is anything close to a 'stunt' if you look how it evolved. There's no way that Ashton was thinking about the impact and exposure when he created his off-the-cuff video message saying that he would ding-dong-ditch Ted Turner. But he quickly and creatively leveraged the opportunity once he saw what was happening. Give the guy some credit. He's got a great track record as you pointed out. Whether you like the characters he plays or the shows he creates or not, he did something pretty amazing last night and I congratulate him for it.
at 00:12 on April 18th, 2009
This is so true! A lot of people are digging into this! Look at this from @birdyseztweet
How celebrities like Demi Moore and Oprah get followers: http://bit.ly/KDfEQ #news
It goes to a search page if you search "Demi Moore" it brings up PAGES and PAGES of bogus "people" tweeting to follow Demi and Oprah and Kim Kardashian -- the profiles are all identical...identical tweets, bogus names and bogus pictures looking like real people.
It is all manipulated! Talk about missing chads.
What a difference between these losers and someone with real talent like Susan Boyle who gives us all rocks us to our feet by her talent alone.
at 10:09 on April 17th, 2009
You couldn't unfollow CNN either. Twitter likely wanted someone to hit 1 Mil for showtime.
at 12:25 on April 17th, 2009
Who really cares it is was a PR stunt or not? Seriously. I say GREAT JOB Ashton even if it was. Besides all that, look at the charity he just helped out and other celebrities and even some of his followers joined in to help out the cause. I applaud him either way. GO ASHTON!!
at 14:16 on April 17th, 2009
For me, it's about 10,000 mosquito nets (plus the matching donations) going to needed areas. If it's a PR stunt, who frickin' cares. People get waaaaay too precious about things.
at 21:12 on April 17th, 2009
The only thing that matters is that something good has been done for charity and I give everyone involved credit for that. Much more awareness has been raised about malaria and lives will be saved.
Quite possibly all the people who have joined because of King and Oprah can do more good in the future.
btw Canadian students recently raised enough to donate 350,000 nets through this Spread the Net campaign: http://tinyurl.com/c6ykv7
The biggest pr stunt was when Ashton took a picture of poor Demi while she was dressing and tweeted it. My husband tells me it was when Aston had the biggest leap in numbers, and joked he almost did the same thing to me. Luckily for him, he was only joking.
at 11:52 on April 18th, 2009
I seriously do not agree with most of what you said. I thought it was amazing to be a part of the event that night and as I became absorbed in this great cause, it was because of his talented marketing skills that helped the Malaria campaign. That is the number one priority here. Read my post at my blog when you have time. DannaCrawford.com
at 14:08 on April 18th, 2009
I really am furious at the dishonesty that Ashton Kutcher has displayed during this whole celebrity race issue. I did not particularly like Aston Kutcher in the first place, now even less. He seems like a spoiled immature weasel, that married a woman older than he is because he needed a mommy.
I cannot believe that CNN, Twitter Execs. and Oprah let themselves be punked in such a ridiculous way. The man is a snake.
I know for a fact that a good percentage of Kutcher's followers are phony accounts. He was well aware that they were not legitimate accounts when he claimed victory. What a sleaze ball. If anything, Kutcher has made people by the thousands angry to the point they will boycott his movies or anything else he is involved with.
at 09:42 on April 17th, 2009
An interesting development.
at 10:36 on April 17th, 2009
I'm not sure the conspiracy theory holds up. Last night I couldn't follow aplusk or CNNbrk. It looked like I did, but would revert to unfollowed status instantly, as if the ajax/javascript part of the page worked, but the database never registered the change.
Other people in my feed complained that they couldn't unfollow either name.
I'm guessing it was probably just some sort of database transaction issues that kept those overloaded users from being followed/unfollowed, since I had no problems following other people.
at 11:04 on April 17th, 2009
ma heeds spinning with this story, spin spin spin.
at 13:03 on April 17th, 2009
to manufacture the biggest news story of the week.
It ain't even the biggest news story of the day.
Social media is for losers.
at 15:28 on April 17th, 2009
On the day Ashton Kutcher garnered his 1,000,000th follower on Twitter, I was on my way to pick up my car from being repaired, when...
(This electronic billboard can be seen between exits 32 and 33 on I-95 northbound in Stratford, CT.)
Rob Pivarnik has contributed a photo to this story.
at 15:49 on April 17th, 2009
I saw this on my way to work today. I was all WTF?
LDubTown has contributed a photo to this story.
at 16:34 on April 17th, 2009
About the How to Unfollow ashton and CNN, it was written by Rafe Needleman, not Dave Winer.
at 23:19 on April 17th, 2009
Self serving for him, Orpah, and their pawns.
Twitter @milestorres
at 02:28 on April 18th, 2009
who cares if it was a PR stunt! it was nicely executed.
a donation was made to a charity. numerous people now know about twitter.
i'm looking to break into a 1,000 followers. i still have a long way to 1,000,000.
to me, a higher number of followers means that one needs to have a higher number of "meaningful" tweets. let's hope CNN and ashton stick to that rule!
www.twitter.com/blacktokyo
at 03:35 on April 18th, 2009
You people are the reason 1 million followed Ashton or at least why we supported him in the last leg of it. Don't try and turn what he did into something bad, it just isn't! Shame on you.
at 07:33 on April 18th, 2009
Of course it was a stunt, why is no one mentioning that CNN bought @CNNbrk from someone else that had over 800,000 followers! Talk about transparency in the media!
These celebrity stunts of altruistism are killing livelihoods in Africa.
http://projectdiaspora.org/2009/04/16/celebrity-stunts-of-altruistism-are-killing-livelihoods-in-africa/
Do not buy the nets!
at 08:22 on April 18th, 2009
Everyone needs to quit whining, it was for a good cause!!
at 13:27 on April 18th, 2009
So? I think it was great - it promoted Twitter (which I am all for), it promoted a good cause and raised money for charity plus it was fun to watch - I was actually entertained. Why do people care whether it was orchestrated or not and perhaps maybe - Lamar did jump in with donated billboards because they benefited as well - I say BRILLIANT!
at 14:48 on April 18th, 2009
I think the real hilarity is that the vast majority of people whining about this are probably doing it in the hopes of gaining more followers.
I saw one dude who's a struggling actor trying to start some anti Ashton Kutcher campaign, and you can tell it's solely because he's hoping the media will pick him up as the Official Anti-Kutcher.
at 15:46 on April 20th, 2009
Don't hate the player. Hate the game. Any one of us would've orchestrated the same thing if we could've. Between Ashton's various TV and internet project ("Blah Girls"), and now this twitter "stunt", at least he's showing he is thinking outside of the box and reaching. He's cross breeding and being innovative. I think it's refreshing coming from an "A" lister like him. Could he be the next Spielberg..of a new medium?
That being said, your last paragraph about broadcasting hit the head on the nail. Look at most of the big celebs and you'll notice they're only posting or they're just following back 7, 35, 100 or in Ashton's case - 84. That's why many newbies on twitter don't "get it". It's his perogative to do so, but it shows how out of touch he is about how to use twitter as a marketing/interaction/pulse tool. If he's only interacting with 84 people, then he's missing the real conversation people are having.