It has been 366 days since I kicked off what became Mad Men on Twitter and I'm excited to announce that what started with a fan of Mad Men wanting to see what would happen if a character from that show started Tweeting shall continue being done by a fan. It just won't be me who is doing the Tweeting. While fun to do, I simply don't have time this year.
So who will get to do it?
That's up to me. And you.
If you want to be @don_draper, convince me that you deserve it. However you think is the best way to do that. The only rule is that it has to be done using the power of the interwebs. Other than that, I'm not going to tell you what to do. That's up to you. Don is the creative director of Sterling Cooper so showing me your creativity is key.
How will this work?
If you're interested, do whatever it is you think is the best way to show me why you should be @don_draper and leave a link/note/whatever in the comments of this post. You have until next Saturday (8/22) to get your submission in. (As long as your comment reads 8/22 as the date, you're up for consideration.)
On Sunday (8/23), five finalists will be chosen. Who they are will not be announced publicly to help protect the ultimate winner's anonymity. Each of the five finalists will be assigned a day to Tweet anonymously as @don_draper (Monday 8/24, Tuesday 8/25, Wednesday 8/26, Thursday 8/27, Friday 8/28) using CoTweet.
On Friday (8/28) night, a poll will be put up for fans to vote for who they think should be the winner.
I'll take fan votes into consideration along with my own opinion to decide who the victory goes to. The winner will be announced on Sunday, August 30th at the conclusion of episode two. (The winner's name will not be announced. They will be announced by the day they were @don_draper, i.e. "Friday @don_draper")
What does the winner get?
They get to be @don_draper for all of season three, getting full control of the account at the end of the season, with two stipulations.
What are the stipulations?
The first stipulation is that they have to do a great job of being @don_draper as decided by the fans. So, before you volunteer to do this, make sure you have the time and energy to put to it. It will require a good effort from you – more than I could put into it last year.
How will the fans decide if the new @don_draper is living up to expectations?
By raising their voice if they feel otherwise just like some of them did last year. If that happens this time, we'll put out a larger vote to see if more people feel that way. If so, the winning @don_draper will be fired and replaced by the runner-up. That's right. The new @don_draper can be fired.
The second stipulation is that they have to remain anonymous until season three is complete.
From what I learned last year, a lot of the fun of the account from the side of the fans is that they don't know who is behind it. At the end of the season, they can announce their identity if they so choose in whatever form they choose. And, if they've done a brilliant job the entire season, the account is theirs to decide what to do with for season four, should there be one. They will have earned it at that point.
To be clear, this means that until the winner proves they deserve full control of the account, they will be @don_draper through CoTweet only while I retain the password and email address tied to it. My only role in this will be following in the fun and (hopefully not) firing the winner should they fail to fulfill the job's requirements.
I know some of you won't like that the account doesn't get handed over right away, but I put too much time into this last year to just give it over without knowing that the person who takes it cares about it as much as I do. If that turns some of you off from applying, well, I understand. For those of you that aren't discouraged by it, I look forward to seeing what happens.
Good luck to those of you who wish to compete.
To the rest of you, please help spread the word.
Oh, and be sure to tune into AMC this Sunday night at 10PM/9C for the premiere of Mad Men Season 3.
