As the film plays well discussed in the awards season, the battle over what is real and fiction escalation. Films as diverse as “Beautiful Mind” and “The Hurricane” have been attacked to take liberties with facts in an attempt to woo the votes of the awards.Zuckerberg has refused to cooperate with the constant stream of media requests that followed. Instead, his team have actively sought a “prestige”, rather than the billionaire 26 years to tell his story. He reached for the New Yorker magazine and author Jose Antonio Vargas for more flattering profile that ran Sept. 20.
On the other hand, Fincher and especially Sorkin have made the rounds of the media to express empathy for Zuckerberg while arguing that the film presents multiple perspectives on the basis of contradictory testimony.
The usually solitary Sean Parker, the founding president of Facebook which is played in the film as a sweet, smart villain by Justin Timberlake, has refused media requests, but has cooperated with a profile in the October issue of Vanity Fair, the decision of a magazine “unprecedented” and “rather than character.”
This aspect has been criticized as an act calculated to counter the film, even though Facebook has insisted that the timing due to the production Winfrey program and the availability of other guests on the show. Zuckerberg had even thought about the gift anonymously Winfrey was persuaded to go public, according to insiders.
A decision was made Zuckerberg, afraid of his reaction to food may be a greater interest in the film, he would not publicly slamming the film. Instead, Advanced Facebook friends like Chris Hughes, a company co-founder who left in 2007 to join the Obama presidential campaign, to challenge the representation of Mark Zuckerberg in a story in The New York Times in August.
“The most important thing was to ensure that people had a better picture of Mark,” said Larry Yu, Director of Corporate Communications Facebook. “This was the point of the profile of the New Yorker.”
“In the sphere of influencers and opinion leaders, they did a great job to do out there in the film that Mark Zuckerberg is not the real Mark Zuckerberg,” said Allan Mayer, an advertising strategy for 42 West, who has worked in films based on different facts including the Oscar-winning “A Beautiful Mind” and “Erin Brockovich”. (42 West is to manage aspects of the “Social Network” awards campaign, but Mayer is not involved.)
“If it was a coincidence, it was very random,” another PR veteran snarked.
Because the film is only now being seen by the public, the impact of “Social Network” on Zuckerberg and Facebook may not be known for months. But many public relations specialists have said that the crisis thought Zuckerberg has weathered the media storm relatively well.
How Sony’s “Chameleon”, the history and origins unauthorized Zuckerberg of Facebook, in theaters Friday, the answer may be both the study and the press-shy billionaire.
“Very often people put together these two types of legal briefs saying what is real and what is wrong,” he said. “Facebook did not do that. They were smart enough to know that it does not matter. They just told the story of the film is not the real story. When you’re one of those battles for perception, all that matters is the net positive “.
But the article itself, in which “Social Network” producer Scott Rudin said that Facebook had tried in vain to convince him to change some things in the film, set off a wave of media attention in view of the New York Film Festival Premiere September 24 .
When you press the film for public office, Zuckerberg enjoyed themselves dismissed as “fiction.” But he was careful not to seem too upset by it or to attack director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, Zuckerberg also cited Sorkin series “The West Wing” TV as one of his favorites.
Zuckerberg has chosen not to hire a team of public relations crisis, instead of using an internal set against the group companies of its corporate communication and Outcast, its usual PR agency.
Winkelvoss twins, depicted in the film by Armie Hammer, also weighed on the film in several interviews.
Several months before the film began screening, speculation was rampant in Hollywood and Silicon Valley on sites like Facebook and its founder would fight against a film heavily marketed on the basis of a controversial book that paints a less flattering.
“The second thing is to make sure people know that we think it’s fiction,” Yu said. “Each time he was asked Mark about this, he meant.”
Positioning Zuckerberg took a little ‘of a stroke when he appeared on Oprah Winfrey on Sept. 24 – the day of “Social Network” before and one week before the scheduled opening – to reveal a gift of $ 100 million charity for New Jersey schools.
“But getting these attacks there is now good for the movie becomes old news,” said Mayer. “This could be one of those extremely rare cases where there is a win-win for everyone.”
“I do not want to be unfair to this young do not know, who has never done anything for me, it does not deserve a punch in the face,” Sorkin said in several interviews. “I really think I did.”
Zuckerberg was not the only one to take action against the advertising of “social networks”.
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