18 “DOCUMENTARIES” THAT BLUR THE LINE BETWEEN TRUTH & FICTION

The AV Club has a nice list of documentaries that toe the line between reality and reel.
Some common threads linking these films are that many of them never admit their fictional basis and often present the premise of the movies as straight-up fact, with the purpose of their ambiguity unclear.

What’s interesting about these documentary style films is that they reflect a lot of what is going on with brands online. We are starting to see the blurring of reality and fiction of brands and identities.

For instance, Borat and Bruno are clearly fictional characters, but the people that Sasha Cohen interviews and the situations he puts himself in are often very real.  This makes for intriguing storytelling about a fictional person and his encounters with very real people. But more importantly, Borat and Bruno are brand extensions of the Ali G show.  These characters help extend and reinforce his style of comedy beyond the platform that the show was intended for (cable tv).

Similarly, Mad Men achieved similar success by using Twitter to extend its characters personas.  Users impersonated some of the series characters effectively extended the series beyond TV, while respecting the tone of the characters on the show.

Papa John’s also used Twitter to tell the story of its individual franchises. Each PapaJohn’s account promotes local promotions based on the region making the brand much more personal than its competitors Pizza Hut or Dominos.

In both cases the blending of fact and fiction created better realties for customers by helping people experience both brands in more intimate and meaningful ways.

(George 3.0)