Smell that? That’s the aroma of publicity stunt. It may or may not be wafting from the matrimonial abode of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore, or from executive producer offices of an ill-described reality show.
When generating buzz, sometimes people’s own imaginations are more effective than your own, and a little bit of vagueness can go along way. Here’s the sentence that has Ashton Kutcher threatening to stop tweeting (gasp! quelle horreur!):
[Twitter] has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein described as “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”
That was from Variety, and it was enough that Moore and Kutcher began tweeting 140 character tales of exploitation and stalking. Both tweeted of being sold out by Twitter. Moore pined how the “incredible gift that Twitter has created” for her to share herself with fans was being exploited. Kutcher stated flat out he didn’t “want to be stalked.” Both threatened to cancel their million-plus-follower accounts if the news was true.
(As a side note, it is kind of ironic. A month ago Kutcher was shouting “everybody follow me!” Today it’s “everybody stop following me!”)
There was so much ado about the Reveille and Brillstein (“Biggest Loser,” “The Office”) project Twitter cofounder Biz Stone twice took to the Twitter blog to deny that Twitter was making a TV show. While that sounds like a denial, it’s more of a clarification. Twitter isn’t making anything, but the company does “have a lightweight, non-exclusive, agreement with the producers which helps them move forward more freely.” Stone goes on to note how openness is Twitter’s chief strength.
What’s amazing about the whole thing is that the original controversy-creating statement really says nothing about the show. For all we know, the show involves celebrities who’ve been cast for the show dropping clues as to their whereabouts as participants race to find them. Tweets like Kutcher made last night about being in Atlanta, for example, despite his fear of being stalked.
Now it’s possible Kutcher and Moore were punk’d, and that’d be pretty sweet, or they might be punking everybody else, which is par for the course. Regardless of whether they’re in on it, it would be brilliant of Reveille and Brillstein if they created all this buzz just by dropping the slightest hint of what they’re up to. You’ll note no further commentary is offered in any news account on the matter. For now, the production companies are probably just sitting back and enjoying the buzz.
