Netflix pays actors to pretend to be customers and talk to press at Canadian launch

By Cory Doctorow at 11:04 pm Wednesday, Sep 22

Netflix has had to apologize after it was revealed that the "enthusiastic customers" talking to the press at its Canadian launch were actors hired for the occasion, reciting lines from a prepared script. It's funny how bizarre a corporate culture this move implies, a board-room full of people inhabiting a reality-distortion bubble nodding enthusiastically to one another, saying, "Yeah, sure, sure, no one will ever find out that they're all actors. It'll be great. Really, really great!"

As a news conference was kicking off to announce Netflix's service -- which uses the Internet to stream unlimited access to thousands of movies and TV shows for $7.99 a month -- extras were asked to spill into the street and encouraged to "play types, for example, mothers, film buffs, tech geeks, couch potatoes etc."
"Extras are to behave as members of the public, out and about enjoying their day-to-day life, who happen upon a street event for Netflix and stop by to check it out," reads an information sheet handed out to extras.
"Extras are to look really excited, particularly if asked by media to do any interviews about the prospect of Netflix in Canada."