“Silicon Valley” is a scripted HBO comedy that so brilliantly satirizes the real-life tech industry it’s hard to tell what’s real and what’s a joke. Now it’s blurring the lines between fact and fiction online as well.
Searching “Silicon Valley” or “Silicon Valley HBO” on Google pulls up fake news stories tied to events in last Sunday’s third season premiere, with authentic-looking headlines situated on top, as seen below:
One headline reads “Are Hooli shares on a tear?” with a link to a Bloomberg video with real anchor Emily Chang playing a role for the show and another links to a post about an accident at Stamford Robotics — both fictional companies featured in the show. The headlines read like they could have been pulled straight from TechCrunch, but they are of course fictional.
The posts are published on Google Posts, a tool rolled out earlier last year for presidential candidates, that lets brands or publishers post directly to Google rather than linking externally. Google Posts is not an ad product, and HBO appears to be using the tool as a free way to cleverly promote the show.
“We’re continuing to experiment with the look and feel of this feature, including exploring other potential use cases,” a Google spokesperson told Digiday. Posts have been used in the past a promotional tool, including for Jimmy Kimmel Live and Game of Thrones.
The partnership is just another way the show ties in its fictional work with the non-fictional: This season’s revamped credits features logos from real tech companies, like Uber and Lyft, along with Amazon Prime drones.
-
Google Pixel creates ad campaign to highlight the 50th anniversary of hip-hop
Google Pixel is highlighting the birth of hip-hop with a new, multi-touchpoint ad campaign.
-
Marketing Briefing: U.S. marketers prepare contingency plans amid potential TikTok ban
The likelihood of a ban is still up in the air, marketers and agency execs say, which is why some are simply taking a wait and see approach while others are preparing contingency plans.
-
In graphic detail: Gamers are warming up to in-game ads
Comscore questioned gamers about their attitudes toward advertisements in games for its State of Gaming report. Digiday got a sneak peek.
-
SponsoredIn a cookieless world, publishers are embracing new approaches to personalized UX
Asaf Shamly, CEO and co-founder, Browsi With user experience at the forefront of many publishers’ minds, the eventual deprecation of third-party cookies is bound to wreak havoc for those who haven’t quite figured out how to adjust their ad model to the coming change. The problem is well defined at this point: They can’t afford, […]
-
Meta, Snapchat, Twitter layoffs spell trouble for agency relationships
The speed and scale of platform layoffs only compound the problem of marketers feeling neglected by the social media giants.
-
Lessons from marketers’ experience with generative AI
Enthralled as marketers clearly are with the possibilities of AI, they’re starting to think they might need a strategy for it.
