The downside to producing a film about the most-used social networking system of all time? Being blacklisted by said social network.
David Fincher’s upcoming The Social Network, an unauthorized story about the creation of Facebook, is unable to market the film on the site itself. According to a Slash Film post, the film violates Facebook’s marketing terms of use, which stipulate that ad copy must not reference Facebook without permission. Given that both teaser trailers have painted Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg in a not-so gracious light, we can only guess that Facebook may not go along with the film’s desire to advertise.
Still, the decision not to pursue Facebook marketing was ultimately Sony’s. “My understanding is that they asked us for our ad guidelines and decided not to advertise on us after receiving them,” head of PR for Facebook, Elliot Schrage, told All Things Digital. “I don’t think they ever submitted ad copy for us to review.”
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