• Ad Age, Friday, June 19, 2009 12:31 PM

Thought MySpace as a marketing vehicle was so yesterday? Not for Sacha Baron Cohen, or "Bruno," who wants you to "freund" him on "MeinSpace." Cohen's new movie will have close ties to the social-networking site, as shown by the de facto home page for the film, MeinSpace.com, hosted by MySpace.

Execs close to the deal tell Ad Age that it's part of a wide-ranging integration between News Corp.'s social network and the film, which is financed by Media Rights Capital and distributed by Universal Pictures and opens July 10. The deal is said to include an integration in the film and a media buy on MySpace, including a home-page takeover where Cohen, as Bruno, pulls back the page to reveal his own version of MySpace in his faux Teutonic lingo.

Execs tell Ad Age that the deal became more complicated than most. Cohen, as a rule, doesn't put products in his films and is said to have put the brakes on aspects of the deal. But he is also an avid user of social media, and the idea that Bruno would be totally into MySpace -- or "mine-sposh," as he pronounces it -- is organic to the character.

Read the whole story at Ad Age »