Twitter Users Have Their Way With “Mad Men”

Situation: You’d be hard-pressed to find a popular TV show or film that doesn’t have some kind of social media presence, whether that be a Facebook page or Twitter account, or most likely both. However, a recent trend in the social media space has taken user-generated material to a whole new level.

Now, instead of following their favorite networks on Twitter for the latest and greatest on each show, fans have taken it upon themselves to promote shows on their own…in the persona of their beloved characters. And no fan base has been more gung-ho about the trend than Mad Men’s.

Results: Of course there’s the argument that no publicity is bad publicity. And yet a controversy arose over the fan induced tweets when AMC realized what was going on with their Emmy Award-winning period piece. Users were fabricating stories, making snide remarks, and even divulging ‘secret information’ on their accounts. Soon, users began creating accounts for not only the show’s primary characters, but for inanimate objects such as couches (@Fainting_Couch) or deceased characters such as Betty’s father, Gene Hofstadt. Extending the narrative is one thing for a network, but handing over complete creative license to an unlimited number of fans is quite another. In August of 2008, AMC issued a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notice to Twitter, demanding all Mad Men related accounts unauthorized by AMC be dismantled. However, it wasn’t long before Deep Focus, the digital marketing agency behind AMC’s ubiquitous Man Men Yourself campaign, convinced AMC that the user tweets were a positive asset to the show. It’s a way for other users to get engaged, interact with characters, and best of all, it’s free!

And so the anonymously operated character tweets continue, constantly filling our feeds with sometimes arrogant, sometimes scandalous updates on each character’s–and object’s–thoughts and happenings off the air.