Where this was said
Viral Marketing as Art Form: The Bait Stunt
At 29:40 · chapter starts 28:35
Mendoza asks whether short-form content creation is genuinely part of Ahmed's art, or just a necessary commercial chore. His answer is both: for Bait, they filmed a series of fake press conferences in which an interviewer calls the idea of Ahmed playing Bond 'hilarious' and he crashes out in outrage. They leaked it. It went viral. The split was roughly 80/20 — 80% of viewers defending Ahmed, 20% calling him arrogant. But the 20% were also exactly right, in a way: the show is called Bait. The entire stunt was a piece of meta-marketing so elegantly designed it worked whether or not the audience understood it. Making it, Ahmed admits, is a genuine art form — distilling storytelling down to haiku. He's had to become more adept in it. [1] — Riz Ahmed "They filmed fake press conferences where an interviewer laughs at the idea of Ahmed playing Bond, and he 'crashes out.' It went viral: 20% …" 28:30
