Posts Tagged ‘fact checking’

Be Careful Out There! From Fake News to Fake Newsmakers—How to Best Protect Your Brand

Thursday, May 11th, 2017

content marketing, content management, newsjacking, social media, digital marketing, SEO, online marketingIn 2006, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Borat character burst onto the big screen and became a huge success in the United States. Borat – a scruffy, socially awkward “journalist,” ostensibly from the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan – took a cross-country trip through the United States, mostly in the South, and interacted with and interviewed numerous unwitting participants who became fodder for Baron Cohen’s movie.

While Borat had been a staple of Baron Cohen’s Da Ali G show for years, the 2006 film marked the first time many Americans had been exposed to the character. From college students and driving instructors to rodeos and local news stations, many Americans were fooled into believing they were being interviewed for a cultural program for consumption in Kazakhstan, something that would not be seen in the United States.

Hilarity, embarrassment and lawsuits followed. (more…)