In an effort to drum up some buzz for yesterday’s Canadian launch of its new streaming service, the flick flinger hired some extras to fill out the crowd.
The publicity stunt involved closing down a street block in Toronto, where a giant dollhouse was set up with three rooms showcasing Netflix’s on-demand service where Canadians can pay $7.99 a month for unlimited streaming of its digital catalog.
The media was invited, and Netflix didn’t want to risk having jaded Canadians making disinterested glances at the spectacle, so it brought in excited extras.
This is already an ethical recipe for disaster, but things got worse when reporters wanted to interview consumers — naturally drawn to those paid to be overly giddy about the service’s launch.It doesn’t get any better for apologists who feel that extras may have overstepped their responsibilities by going through with media interviews.
A leaked script instructs extras to “look really excited, particularly if asked by the MEDIA to do any interviews.”Netflix is a company that doesn’t make many mistakes, so this blunder stands out.
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