Woody Harrelson’s reddit fail: Marketing gone wrong

One of most important things about marketing things on social media, is trying to make it as natural as possible. When it feels too forced, it might have the opposite effect of what you’re trying to achieve. Case in point: Woody Harrelson’s AMA (an abbreviation of Ask Me Anything) on the social news website Reddit.


Doing an AMA isn’t necessarily a bad move. Giving people the opportunity to ask a celebrity anything can be a great way to spark excitement for a future project. If it goes well, that is. Apparently, Harrelson’s PR department forgot the definition of “anything”, which is why Harrelson ended up frustrated when his attempts to plug his next movie Rampart fell on deaf ears. Because, can you imagine that people want to talk about other things besides Rampart? Geez!


It’s not even as if the open online interview started out as acceptable and then gradually declined. No, it was a train wreck from the get-go. You see, Mr. Harrelson, stating that you’ll be answering questions “for about 15 minutes” is not a great way to give a first impression, to say the least. Explaining why you mainly talk about your next movie with the remark that you “consider your time valuable” makes it even worse. It is almost impossible not to hear a hint of condescension in it.

But by then the tone of the Q and A had already been set as a result of this question by AndyRooney:

“I swear this is a true story. I went to a high school in LA and you crashed our prom after party (Universal Hilton). You ended up taking the virginity of a girl named Roseanna. You didn't call her afterwards. She cried a lot. Do you remember any of this and can confirm or have you been so knee deep in Hollywood pooty for so long that this qualifies as a mere blip?”

 Harrelson replied: “First of off, its not true, and second off, I don't want to answer questions about that. Lets focus on the film people.” This comment and especially the latter part of it offended the reddit-community, because they were there to ask him “anything” and not just to listen to him promote his latest project. This feeling was increased when Harrelson continued to deflect questions in order to talk about Rampart. As a result, Woody Harrelson was ‘downvoted into oblivion’, and the public opinion on the influential social news site turned against Rampart.

The whole ordeal is almost too perfect of an example of how social media should not be used in marketing. An AMA should be regarded as a fun opportunity to interact with fans. It is a chance to increase the interest of people in you as a person and the work you do (such as an upcoming movie). An-“I don’t want to answer questions about that”-attitude doesn’t fit that profile. “Anything” literally means “anything”.

• I’m still not really sure if it was really Woody Harrelson himself, or just some PR guy answering the questions. Either way, it was a fine example of horrible marketing.

• Unlike this instance, AMA’s in the past have proven to be far more successful. Notable ones include Louis CK (creator of the tv-comedy Louie), Megan Ganz (writer for the tv-comedy Community) and Stephen Colbert (creator of the satirical news show The Colbert Report).

• Zach Braff’s AMA gets its own bullet point. In my opinion it serves as one of the best examples of an AMA done right. Even though the tv-show (Scrubs) in which he starred and is most famous for had already stopped, he was still very willing to answer questions about it. He made people laugh and generally seemed like a very nice and likeable person, while also mentioning future projects. But yeah, being Zach Braff probably helps.