Marketers for the new film Ex Machina, about a robot wanting to know what it’s like to be human, created a fake Tinder profile/bot after the film’s lead robot character and proceeded to first flirt then lure SXSW attendees to look at promotions for the film.
“While this was a great ploy to get people to view the ad for the premiere, it clearly would leave people irritated that they fell for that sort of trickery,” said Ken Wisnefski, CEO of WebiMax, a social media-marketing firm. “Honestly, if that was me who fell for that, I’d feel somewhat embarrassed and would in no way have any interest in going to the movie premiere because I would be irritated the marketing toyed with me.”