Feel sorry for the reporters who had to cover the Netflix introduction in Canada.
This story -- Netflix apologizes for using actors to meet press at Canadian launch -- from The Globe and Mail marks a new low by PR people trying to score coverage.
Here's a link to the story:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/netflix-apologizes-for-using-actors-to-meet-press-at-canadian-launch/article1718924/
Now, it's accepted as fair game for PR people to fill out events with "extras" -- these are usually employees who are sent to the conference or promotion to help build a crowd. (First, if there is a bunch of people hanging around in one area, it tends to attract others. Second, these events usually feature a company executive, so it's to employees' advantage to participate.)
For this promotion, Netflix hired actors to play the parts of "geeks" and other customer-types to create the crowd (expensive, but not necessarily unethical). Netflix went over the line in allowing/encouraging the actors to lie about their identities when interviewed by the press.
Why is this case particularly upsetting (and by the way, it came to my attention through mediabistro.com, so the working press must have found it offensive as well)?
First, there are fewer reporters to cover an increasing number of "events," so wasting these professionals' time is just wrong. If people agree to be interviewed by a reporter, it's understood that they should tell the truth.
Second, this is the tip of a troubling trend in media relations. It's one thing to try to attract coverage. It's quite another to deliberately hire people to misrepresent themselves to the press. (If you want to see another example of this unethical behavior, see the Los Angeles Times story about the toy "expert.")
While I certainly agree that this PR gimmick my Netflix is over the top, I question whether it's really so out of line with the norm. There have always been people and organizations willing to put on publicity stunts to gain public and news media attention. Whether it's hiring bikini-clad models for trade shows or telling only certain parts of a story in a press release, I think most companies do this to some level. It's called, euphemistically, 'spin'. I'd have to ask, too, whether what the actors said was truthful. Companies hire actors to play people in their companies all the time...I really don't think the guy with the big white head is really the CEO/founder of the Jack In The Box restaurants. Is what Netflix did really that different?
ReplyDeleteThis doesn't excuse Netflix in my eyes but I tend to think it was more of a silly PR good than a real violation of ethics.
My other thought is that it is up to the journalists to verify facts and I think that includes the identities of those they interview. All to often these days, journalists are lazy and assume a lot. If a well placed source or 'common knowledge' dictates a so-called fact, journalists often just accept it rather than digging deeper to find the truth. In a way, I think that is an ethics violation - we, as journalists have an ethical responsibility to ferret out the truth. Failing to do so due to laziness violates that ethical responsibility.
This piece really illustrates the tug of war between PR and journalism. PR folk want to write the article for the journalist & promote only their version of the story. Journalists are all too often willing to let them.