The Movie: Borat, or to give it its complete title, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan, is British comedian Sasha Baron Cohen's 2006 mockumentary in which Cohen plays the titular fictitious journalist on a mission to America to discover its cultural heritage. Easily Cohen's funniest film to date, it is infamous for the number of unwitting participants who complained long and loud after the film was released and they realised they had been duped. The Campaign: Setting up Borat as a real person, the studio established a large online presence including a realistic MySpace page (which shows the age of the film) and other associated websites building up the fake personality. But the real genius to the campaign came from Sasha Baron Cohen himself, who conducted dozens of interviews on television, not once slipping out of character. Effectiveness: Borat was a huge hit in cinemas and Sasha Baron Cohen's presence on TV promoting his character (rather than focusing on the film) would have surely improved the box office takings a great deal. The film was such a success, in fact, that a sequel was discounted on account of too many people knowing who he really was.
