Ouch! HBO’s Vampire Show Bites Business Blog
by Peter Kafka
Posted on May 23, 2009 at 5:13 PM PT
Here’s a scoop from Silicon Alley Insider, published Saturday morning: “Gawker Media announced last night that it acquired BloodCopy.com. It’s a blog about vampires. Really.”
No, not really.
While an earlier version of the story went on to include a graph depicting BloodCopy’s Web traffic and several theories that might explain Gawker Media’s purchase of a vampire-themed blog, the Alley Insider post has since been revised. It now explains that the news site was snookered by a “PR firm contracted by Gawker [that] sent us a release with the news.”
Said news is actually part of a promotional campaign for “True Blood,” the vampire show entering its second season on Time Warner’s (TWX) HBO .
More details about BloodCopy, the fake blog that HBO runs to promote the show, as well as other marketing stunts the cable network has rolled out, are available here. But if you don’t have time to read a whole blog post, do be aware that this anti-vampire rights group is a fake. So is this pro-vampire rights group. And so is this synthetic blood beverage.
Disclosures! I used to work for Alley Insider, whose parent company just raised a bunch of money, which makes me happy.
Comments
I just pointed out on Alley Insider that, based on the email message, it looks like this came from a marketing/advertising firm and not a PR firm. I’m putting in my two cents so that there’s not yet more fuel to the fire of bashing PR firms.
PR Firms (the legit ones, in my definition) counsel against this type of marketing with two very basic rules 1) disclosure is critical (facts will always come out); and 2) you never ever ever ever trick someone into editorial coverage.
Not that I want any industry bashed. But if someone’s going to be bashed, it should be the right target.
Posted by Ephraim Cohen at May 24th, 2009 at 9:49 amI don’t read SAI much anymore. I like the sedateness of allthingsd.
Posted by Bjorn Tipling at May 24th, 2009 at 11:36 am