Intellectual Property Law

Who Is The Real Fake Betty Draper?

By Marty Schwimmer

The wife and I like to kick back with a case of scotch and a couple of cartons of Lucky Strikes and watch Mad Men. I mentioned on Twitter last night that I was watching Mad Men and lo and behold this morning I receive an email that "Betty Draper" is now following me (Betty Draper is a character on the show). I wasn't able to determine whether this was a clever promotion on the part of the show or something else. This post suggests that it is a case of 'fanjacking.'

Previous discussion of Betty's husband Don Draper on Twitter here.

p.s. 'Following' someone on Twitter means subscribing to their updates. Because Twitter sends an email to a user notifying that they have a new follower, and that email contains a link to the follower's page, subscribing to strangers en masse has become a promotional (and often spamming) technique.

Full post as published by Trademark Blog on November 16, 2008 (boomark / email).