It may have been eclipsed by Facebook as the world’s biggest online social network but MySpace has emerged as one of the more unlikely beneficiaries of a controversial new film about the formation of its great rival. Sony’s new movie The Social Network opens in the US on Friday with anticipation fuelled by an advertising blitz on TV, online and huge billboards that label Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder “Punk. Genius. Traitor”.
As the film’s subject matter – and with more than 500m registered users worldwide – Facebook would appear to be a natural fit for Sony’s marketing campaign. Yet Sony’s film studio has been in effect forced off Facebook and instead paid for a far-reaching campaign on MySpace that includes a “takeover” of the site’s home page with high-definition video, imagery and branding from The Social Network. MySpace, which has more than 100m users, declined to comment on the cost of the campaign.
Sony said that Facebook’s advertising guidelines “don’t allow ads to reference the company unless Facebook has co-operated with the object of the ad, so we decided not to advertise there given their stated parameters”.
Relations between Sony and Facebook have deteriorated as the film nears its release date. Mr Zuckerberg used to be a fan of Aaron Sorkin, who wrote The Social Network screenplay, yet the Facebook founder recently removed The West Wing, which was also written by Mr Sorkin, from the list of his favourite TV shows on his Facebook profile page.
Mr Sorkin told the New Yorker recently that the film was “not meant as an attack” on Mr Zuckerberg. “I don’t want to be unfair to this young man whom I don’t know, who’s never done anything to me, who doesn’t deserve a punch in the face,” he said.
Facebook has distanced itself from the claims made in the film about the company’s origins and the portrayal of Mr Zuckerberg as a socially awkward party animal while studying at Harvard. “The movie might be a sign that Facebook has become meaningful to people — even if the movie is fiction,” said Facebook. “What the movie may or may not contain is not what we’re focused on.”
But Sony has defended the portrayal. “The movie is drawn from extensive research including first-person interviews with many of the characters depicted in the film,” said a person close to the production.
“Despite the fact that Facebook might hate the movie, I don’t know that it’s such a bad thing for the company,” said David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect .
The film has received overwhelmingly positive reviews and has been mentioned by some critics as a possible contender at next year’s Academy Awards. “The movie highlights how significant Facebook has become in our daily lives,” said Clara Shih, a social media consultant and author of The Facebook Era.