“Scandalous” website (Showtime) blurs the line between fact and fiction

It’s not a new idea in marketing: Establish credibility, deliver marketing. An obvious example is every third radio commercial which starts with a quick blast of three chords, like any other pop song, before the announcer or singer-wannabe chime sin with the “pitch.”

How could this be translated to the web? Social media is the traditional approach… Anyone remember the hubub when Facebook blended fact and fiction by using photos of your friends in the ads they showed you? The backlash forced a retraction, but it’s just a sign of things to come.

Showtime’s “Scandalous” took a different approach. At first glance it appears to be a legit, credible political news site (and in many ways it is), but upon closer inspection, you’ll notice the show’s fictional Mayor of Chicago “Tom Kane” mixed into the news stories.

Although the “news” on the site is little more than categorized twitter feeds, it begs a bigger question, is this the future of marketing? Just because the site has an agenda, does that make it’s content invalid?

By providing some content in the same vien as the show, will it lend the credibility they hope? In any event, it’s a very unique approach to web marketing, and one that I think we’ll see more of in the near future.

Check the site out here: http://scandalousdirt.com/#/