Woody Harrelson Fails on Reddit
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Despite my multiple training seminars with my co-worker, JR, I still don’t consider myself to be an expert at Reddit. However, I do understand that “AMA” means ask me anything – a concept that apparently eludes Woody Harrelson’s PR division. According to Forbes, Harrelson and company decided to branch out from the normal methods of advertising upcoming movies and instead take to Reddit to promote his new film “Rampart”.
While Reddit users were expecting a normal Ask Me Anything session, which usually involves people from all backgrounds and fields asking random questions ranging from the serious to inappropriate and humorous, Harrelson apparently was operating under the guise of “Ask me anything…as long as its about Rampart,” something his PR people are most likely responsible for.
Needless to say, the experience can be chalked up to a complete and utter disaster. Why? Well, one of the first questions asked of Woody was, “I swear this is a true story. I went to a high school in LA and you crashed our prom after party (Universal Hilton). You ended up taking the virginity of a girl named Roseanne. You didn’t call her afterwards. She cried a lot. Do you remember any of this and can confirm or have you been so knee deep in Hollywood pooty for so long that this qualifies as a mere blip?”
Obviously, Harrelson was a little taken aback. I probably would be too if I blindly went into this thinking this was a place I could shamelessly plug my film. Harrelson denied the virginity accusation and changed the subject back to “Rampart”. He pretty much stuck to this strategy for almost any question he was asked, sending the Reddit universe into a fit. Outraged comments included “You said AMA. That means “Ask Me Anything.” Not “Ask Me Anything with regards to this movie I’m pushing” and “This isn’t The Tonight Show and I’m not buying your bulls—t.” Then, a boycott of the film was purposed which seemed to be generally approved.
Perhaps this should serve as a lesson to celebrities attempting to bridge the gap to their fans (or target audience) through social media that they don’t understand. When you’re going up against pornstars, coma survivors, astronauts, and Nickelodeon storyboard artists, you better bring something better to the table than clichéd “the director was amazing” and “I had so much fun making this,” especially when people didn’t necessarily ask for it in the first place.
Even Reddit’s co-founder, Alexis Ohanian, deemed the AMA an “epic fail” on his twitter. Had Harrelson just played into this, he probably would’ve gotten a lot more press for his movie; instead he answered all of four questions and basically embarrassed himself. If you have some time to kill, you should read through some of the ridiculous banter that took place on the AMA as well as the massive amount of Woody Harrelson Memes that are now all over internet.
