When it comes to bleak and often creepy looks at how bad addiction to technology can get, you won't find anything as good as Black Mirror. The series can often make you feel pretty crummy about the effects of technology but that's what the entire show is about. People usually know what they are signing up for when they sit down for a Black Mirror episode, but apparently, not everyone is so fortunate. People in Turkey had no idea what was happening when they received a Black Mirror advertisement that told them they were being spied on.
Black Mirror usually creeps people out, but the series' warnings of overreliance on technology accidentally became threats to some people living in Turkey. People were given a scare when they received a direct message on Turkey's version of Reddit. Reportedly, the message came from an account called "iamwaldo" and read "We know what you're up to. Watch and see what we will do." With zero context to the situation, pretty much any person would begin to freak out and wonder who it was that was watching them. What the people of Turkey didn't know is the whole thing was a marketing ploy for Black Mirror.
Those familiar with Black Mirror will recognize the name Waldo. It was the name of a cartoon blue bear from the episode "The Waldo Movement." The episode featured a struggling comedian who voiced an animated bear that would interview and humiliate politicians for a late night show. Waldo grows in popularity and is entered into a real election, the results of which have global ramifications. Black Mirror fans could have recognized that this was marketing for the show, but some people in Turkey weren't as familiar with the program.
This is all given an extra layer of messed up when you realize the real world developments in Turkey as of late. In 2016, martial law was declared in Turkey following a military coup and there were rumors that the Turkish government was regularly spying on citizens. So imagine getting a message telling you that you were being watched and you'd probably flip out big time. Those who received the message were reportedly none too thrilled when they found out it was all for a TV show, according to Eksisozluk.
Honestly, it was a pretty on-brand marketing technique for Black Mirror, but one has to think there are better ways of getting your show out there than scaring the pants off a group of people. If you're at all curious about this Black Mirror hoopla, you can watch the series in its entirety on Netflix. Season 4 of Black Mirror recently released on the streaming service on December 29. For more shows coming to Netflix, be sure to visit our Netflix release guide.
