TWC Mashes Up Fake Celebs

Sex! Drugs! Reliable phone service!

Time Warner Cable has launched Fame Star!, a viral-video site to promote its triple play that lets anyone upload their own photos and create a one-minute mock celebrity exposé. 

Just type in your name, choose your gender, pick a story arc with varying levels of success, scandal and tragedy and select whether your character is based in New York, Los Angeles or Dallas.
 
Et voilà! Your "biopic" is ready — preceded by a 20-second ad promoting Time Warner Cable’s services. 

Lisa Stockmon, vice president of corporate marketing for Time Warner Cable, said the campaign was patterned after the “pop-culture intrusion” of other successful mashup-video sites, such as OfficeMax’s ElfYourself.com, which lets visitors paste their own photos on dancing Christmas elves. 

Fame Star! will run through the end of the year and could be extended further, Stockmon said.

“We can update it based on the economy and what happens with the elections,” she said. “We have a lot of flexibility in what we can do with it.” 

And how will TWC prevent the site from being abused? Stockmon said Fame Star! is being monitored by staff members and offensive words are automatically prevented from being inserted into the videos.