Borat, buzz marketing, and the beauty of irony.

"Borat," the new film by comedian Sasha Baron Cohen, has ruffled the feathers of everyone from Jews to frat boys. Some say the over-the-top movie is anti-Semitic; townspeople from the Romanian village of Glod are suing Cohen, and the movie has been banned in some places. Proving any press is good press, the film remains #1 at the box office. But is the bad press in this case actually “bad” press?

Bad press is usually something that raises the ire of the general public. A story of an actor arrested for drug use or unsanitary food preparation at a well-known restaurant would definitely make people raise an eyebrow, and hold a negative opinion of the story’s subject. The case of “Borat,” however, is special. As the film is constructed around an actor playing gags on several people throughout the film, the lawsuits scream that someone was pranked particularly well – and if you want to see this prank in action, go see, "Borat." It would seem that the very subject matter of the film forces this bad press to actually be good press. It is ironic that the very people who want to hurt the film as retribution are in fact doing the most to promote it. That these individuals have also proved that they are incapable of irony… and in suing the producers are actually creating the irony… Why, philosophers may ponder this mobius strip of logic for ages! I need to lie down.

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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