I woke up to an email from someone informing me that she had been contacted by someone casting for a new “adoption show.” The email was forwarded to me complete with her name, so I checked her out on LinkedIn and Facebook. When I found her on Facebook, I was pleased to see her most recent commenting activity on other pages and walls was visible and click-able.
But I was also appalled.
She’s been spamming quite a few places to get her message out about the casting of this adoption “documentary.” One of them is, arguably, a spam page for “Expectant moms thinking of adoption.” But one of them that got caught in the spam fun was Open Adoption Bloggers’ Facebook page.
Text: I am casting a docu-series for a major cable network. A new show that will be very inspirational and empowering to Birth Mothers and Adoptive Families. Looking for women 16-30 years old who are expecting and looking to place their child in an Open Adoption. Please message me ASAP if you are interested or know someone who might want to share their story.
This is not okay. It’s also stupid and evidence that people in traditional fields do not understand how to use social media even though there’s story after story of people doing it wrong that they could learn from (see also: most recently Ragu). If you’re going to use Facebook to spam your message, do a little research and see if the group you are spamming is going to be remotely interested in your message. This goes beyond being annoyed by spam, of course, as many of the Open Adoption Bloggers are in favor of ethical adoption reform — which also includes taking these adoption documentaries to task. Following a woman around with a camera while she attempts to make a decision of this nature is coercive. She is left feeling like she has no option but to place since she will “ruin” the documentary if she doesn’t. It is the definition of non-verbal coercion. No one says it, no one threatens the expectant mother, but it is understood what the outcome has to be.
Sadly, this is the second “documentary” of this nature that I’ve heard of in the last month. Apparently the OXYGEN Network is also working on their own, but they were “smart” enough to spam Adoptive Families Circle which isn’t filled with people like me who will take them to task. Though they did email Dawn, which is laughable. I don’t know why we’re seeing a resurgence of interest in the documentary aspect of the adoption process. It’s been overplayed for years, and isn’t anything “new” or out of the ordinary. Maybe these documentary people are playing off of what they’re seeing on television, which as we know from my Parenthood and Glee reviews, is non-stop-adoption all the time. It’s a possibility.
But I’m here to tell you: We don’t need another adoption documentary that follows an expectant mother around with cameras. We DO need a big-network documentary that follows around those who are fighting for their Original Birth Certificates. THAT is what society needs to learn about adoption right now. Not more 16 & Pregnant, overplayed, unoriginal, unimaginative, coercive faux-documentary bullcrap.
So, POP Magnet Entertainment, unless you have one of those up your sleeves, the adoption blogosphere really doesn’t want to hear what you have to say — especially in spam form. At the very least, teach your employees not only proper etiquette for promoting your casting search but some common sense. Catch a clue.