And trouble, it has arrived. In the form of, unsurprisingly, Ashton Kutcher. Earlier this week, the Punk'd'er challenged CNN--that's right, the Cable News Network--to see who could collect 1,000,000 followers on their Twitter account first. If he won, Kutcher promised to “ding-dong ditch” Ted Turner's house. That this Twitter race was enough of an event that I had read about it elsewhere was worrisome enough, but now EA has escalated the situation, offering a prize of every game EA publishes in 2009, as well as an appearance in The Sims 3, to whomever ends up being Kutcher's 1,000,000th follower. To be crystal clear here, there is now a significant bounty for people willing to pretend to be interested in what Ashton Kutcher has to say in 140 characters or less.
I don't think any of this absurdity would bother me if I thought that the Kutch was at all aware of its absurdity, but I can't shake the feeling that he's oblivious to any subtext, and just really, really wants the attention. That said, I can't fault anyone for getting into the mix now that EA is offering that prize. Times are tough, and apparently we're so starved for entertainment that we're paying attention to a popularity contest between a second-tier celebrity and the news.
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