Twentieth Century Fox has apologized for a viral marketing campaign strategy for upcoming movie “The Cure for Wellness” that involved the propagation of fake news stories online.
Last week we reported on several fake news stories that were spreading virally across the Internet from websites including the Sacramento Dispatch and the NY Morning Post. A selection of stories published by these spoof sites included the headlines “Trump and Putin spotted at Swiss Wellness Spa” and “Trump refuses federal funds to California after natural disaster“.
After examining the stories, we discovered that they all contained vague references to an upcoming horror movie titled “The Cure for Wellness”, including character or location references and using the movie’s Twitter hashtag #cureforwellness.
After we spotted the references, other media outlets including Buzzfeed also picked up on the trending fake news stories.
It turned out to be a marketing strategy on behalf of Twentieth Century Fox, capitalising on the fake news trend. It isn’t the first time movie’s have used the Internet in a similar way. Most famously The Blair Witch Project released a number of fake stories to add credence to the Blair Witch myth.
However this latest promotional campaign resulted in criticism given the serious headlines that fake news has been attracting lately, and this has led to an apology from Twentieth Century Fox…
In a statement to ABC News –
In raising awareness for our films, we do our best to push the boundaries of traditional marketing in order to creatively express our message to consumers. In this case, we got it wrong
…
The digital campaign was inappropriate on every level, especially given the trust we work to build every day with our consumers. We have reviewed our internal approval process and made appropriate changes to ensure that every part of a campaign is elevated to and vetted by management in order to avoid this type of mistake in the future. We sincerely apologize.