In The Loop: ever get the feeling you were being followed?

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March 28, 2009

Armando Iannucci’s new film, In The Loop, is out on 17 April and promises, no doubt, to be a bitingly funny satire on British politics and communications.

There. With that opening sentence and video I have done exactly what the PR company wants me and other bloggers to do as a result of their social media marketing. Their campaign includes Deep Throatminster – a spoof Westminster mole blog à la Civil Serf – and two tweeting officials:  The Thick of It‘s sweary Campbell-alike Director of Communications Malcolm Tucker and Chief Press Officer Jamie MacDonald.

Now I’m no big fan of political satire. You can put as much swearing in it as you like but it’s all still about as edgy as Punt and Dennis if you ask me. But I do like it that they’ve used Twitter in this way.

The press release says:

If the ‘politicool’ immersive blogging entries aren’t enough of a fix, join Malcolm ‘Mother’ Tucker and his right hand man Jamie MacDonald as they jump on the Twitter bandwagon and tweet back and forth sharing pearls of Westminster wisdom and the usual array of profane yet insightful tit-bits from DFID.

(That’s a fictional DFID, not to be confused with @DFID_uk which is insightful without profanity!)

As one of the many government officials who advocates as well as rides that “Twitter bandwagon” in both a professional and personal capacity, I’ll take it as a ringing endorsement of the channel that the film’s PR company is using it in this way. And a step in the right direction, after what happened with Mad Men.

I also feel fairly well satirised. Some of my favourite tweets so far:

  • Malcolm_Tucker This is perfect. Nobody’s gonna find us here. Even if they do they’ll think it’s a spoof.
  • Jamie_MacDonald Stephen Fry. He’s just gone for another fucking lovely walk and said something clever in German.
  • Jamie_MacDonald Just watched 2 girls 1 cup twice. now for some lunch.

OK, I’ll admit Punt and Dennis would never say that.

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