Scottish actor Ewan McGregor is the latest victim of the Twimposter craze. Close to 20,000 fans have fallen for the scam and according to social media celebrity validation site ‘Valebrity’ even Ewan’s motorcycling mate Charley Boorman confirmed that McGregor’s twitter was the real McCoy (though there is no confirmation that this was the real Charley Boorman).
Not so it seems, this the latest in a long list of bogus celebrity social web presences. Other victims have included Eddie Izzard, Star Trek favourites Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner (although he now tweets for real) and the Oscar winning Kate Winslet. It is becoming a minefield for both the celebrity PR machines and the fans who are piling into the social social web so that they get closer to the twitterati.
The fake McGregor, although a clever ruse, will have been an easy spot for any fellow Scot. On the (also false) MySpace profile linked to the twitter stream Ewan apparently said “I love motorbikes, my home Scotland, doing charity work for Unicef. Of course my wife and my wee little girls”. “Wee little”? Oh please what kind of talk is that?
PR and the Social Web 