Showtime Adjusts E-Mail Promo for The Tudors
Headlines on Faux News Web Site Were Way Too Real
By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/14/2008 6:05:00 AM
Showtime reconsidered its ripped-from-the-headlines approach to a recent online promotion for the second season of The Tudors.
To tease the March 30 premiere of its steamy series about the young King Henry VIII, the pay cabler sent out e-mails hyping a news story about a "Mystery Millionaire." Recipients who clicked on the attached link were led to a Web site for "WKTS-TV" with an array of news headlines.
If the Tudors banner ad wasn't a giveaway, the pop-up promo that appeared when you clicked the headlines made it clear that it was a fake news site.
Some of the headlines, however -- "Latest Violence Kills 12 in Baghdad" and "Vet Hospital Faulted in 23 Deaths" -- were perhaps a tad too realistic.
Showtime vice president of corporate relations Stuart Zakim explained that the network simply "wanted to make it look like an authentic news site for a TV station." But he conceded that using faux headlines about all-too-real casualties of war to promote a TV drama might be construed as insensitive. Others agreed.
Showtime has since replaced the headlines with more innocuous ones.
-
What did CBS News do to hype CBS News programs, wingnut moron? You know damn well Mary Mapes and "60 Minutes" told the truth about your idol Shrub the Moron.
Oh yes, wingnut--what's your opinion of African-Americans, Latinos, Asian-Americans, Native Americans, Jews, gays and lesbians--as if we didn't already know? And how big is your shrine to your idol Adolf Hitler?
Mark Jeffries - 4/14/2008 3:05:00 PM EDT -
So now it's OK for another network owned by CBS, home of CBS News, to create fake news stories to hype its programs?
ScotsmansKilt - 4/14/2008 1:36:00 PM EDT
No related content found.
-
No Top Articles
Featured Company
-
Digital Rapids
Digital Rapids provides market-leading software and hardware solutions, technology and expertise for transforming live and on-demand video to reach wider audiences on the latest viewing platforms more efficiently, more effectively and more profitably. Empowering applications from..more
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
