How Actors And Athletes Get Near -- And Over -- The Edge With Their Tweets

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Alec Baldwin singlehandedly continues to do some of NBC's best marketing work for "30 Rock": He keeps saying outrageous stuff or getting in the middle of testy issues -- like being a passenger on a airline.

What's his secret? He doesn't go over the Sheen-edge.

Most of Baldwin’s activities were on those 140-character Twitter blurbs. But only recently, when playing a mobile game too near takeoff on American Airlines, did he decide to stop the stream-of-thought, unedited Twitter stuff.

Baldwin isn't the first actor/celebrity to fall into a nasty Twitter vortex. Ashton Kutcher did much the same a couple of weeks earlier concerning some wrong information about the sex abuse scandal at Penn State and football coach Joe Paterno.

As a result, he said he was abandoning doing tweets -- for the most part. (His future tweets may be written and vetted by his Katalyst Group production company).  Many more actors and athletes have seemingly stopped their Twitter activity because of faux pas in business and other relationship messaging.

The best thing about Twitter is also the worst thing about Twitter: saying what you want with little or no mental editing. What's an entertainment or sports public relations executive to do?  Sit back and watch. And then say, "I told you so.

Entertainment consumers love the rough patches their favorite celebs get themselves into. How many times have we seen bigtime athletes rant on in a tweet about teammates, competitors, referees/umpires and coaches -- only to regret the comment later on?

And celebs will tell you they love the immediate access --  and response.

Perhaps the biggest celebrity to put both his feet into this mess -- especially in 2011 -- was none other than Charlie Sheen. Does he regret some, if not all, of what he did? Does he think about this at all as he grabs what assuredly will be a much lower payday from a new show called "Anger Management" on FX than he did with CBS's "Two and a Half Men"?

The difference between Baldwin and Sheen? Baldwin doesn't bash his TV producers or his network. For Sheen, anything was open season -- all the more fun for us. (He has been a lot quieter lately and a bit more humble).

TV marketing on Twitter can work many ways. If you don't know the direction, it may sound exciting. If you are a celebrity doing your own Twitter marketing --- for the sake of your fans (not your business interests) -- continue to not think about what you are doing. Release the hounds.

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2 comments on "How Actors And Athletes Get Near -- And Over -- The Edge With Their Tweets".

1. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: December 23, 2011 at 6:49 p.m.
   This keeps proving that too many people have too much time and not smart enough or kind enough or thoughtful enough or caring enough or hungry enough to find something else to do rather than waste so much time, energy and money on people who enormously profit from them.
2. Todd Brewster from Media Buying Decisions
   

   commented on: December 28, 2011 at 12:32 a.m.
   Talk about misinformation. I have been defending Joe Paterno, because he was lynched in public opinion where he did nothing wrong. He followed procedure and passed hearsay evidence to the AD and Head of Police who had jurisdiction in this case. The misinforation on your link was it called Sandusky an assistant coach to Joe. This is one of the lies and distorted speculations about the scandal. Sandusky was a former coach. This issue is terrible, but it was not a football issue. The focus should have been on the victims, Sandusky, and those indicted by the Grand Jury. Joe was exonerated by the Grand Jury and cited as being truthful and cooperative.

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