PostSecret Fans in Uproar Over NBC Show
Fans of PostSecret are steamed at NBC and they are letting their fury loose in the NewTeeVee comments. The uproar was sparked yesterday when PostSecret linked to a story we wrote earlier this month about NBC launching an upcoming online series called Fears, Secrets and Desires.
We pointed out in our original story that the premise of NBC’s show was similar to that of PostSecret in that users submit their fears, secrets and desires. Only instead of an artistic post card, NBC would create a series of videos around the submissions, using Hollywood talent to bring them to life.
In its blog update on Sunday, PostSecret founder Frank Warren posted the following email message he received:
Hey Frank,
Ever notices how the (corporate owned) media reports on big companies that prosecute people for “stealing” music and other creative content from the web. But you never read any stories about the corporations like 3M and NBC that pirate from PostSecret and other websites.
“NBC” in the post linked back to our initial coverage on NewTeeVee. PostSecreters’ reactions were swift and litigious. Here are some sample comments:
And NBC has the nerve to call “Fears, Secrets and Desires” an NBC Web Original. It’s not an original, it’s a blatant rip off that’s going to pander to the lowest common denominator. It won’t be Post Secret- it will be Jerry Springer. NBC, for shame. Post Secret should sue.
BOO!!! Boycott NBC until they own up to and compensate (IE: Hopeline donations etc) Frank and the Post Secret Community for stealing their ideas!!! FOR SHAME!!!
Way to rip off PostSecret. Yea… NBC is not original or clever. Hurray people who can’t think of a good idea themselves! Go get ‘em Frank! Sue them!
Warren, who founded the site back in 2005, is currently traveling and could not be reached for comment.
For its part, an NBC spokesperson said that its online series was based on a TV show called Fear Itself, and said it would provide more details in a statement later today. We’ll update you when that happens.
What do you think? Has NBC ripped off the idea from the web, or is the idea for this show general enough to have happened on its own?
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Its a tough call, having worked in TV, I can tell you that it isn’t usually the networks that come up with the ideas for new shows, but outside producers who then pitch their ideas to networks. It is totally plausible that a producer ripped off the site and pitched it to NBC which may or may not have known about post secret, but the similarities between them are pretty damning. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
This is ridiculous. Hollywood is only going to ruin the pure artistic way secrets are shared. And how can they not think this is rip off? Disgusting. I’m a fan of NBC, but this pisses me off.
Putting originality aside, this show sound horrible. Not because it allegedly “ripped” the idea from PostSecret but because it seems like it will become less about the actual stories and more about who appears on the show. To me, it sounds less like an artistic take on an idea and more like a show that will make personal stories impersonal.
this is absolutely absurd.
NBC is doing something really low here. there is no artistic value in what they are doing. in fact, there is no value in it whatsoever.
grow up NBC. form your own ideas; don’t steal frank’s.
I wouldn’t put it past NBC to blatantly steal this idea (and watch Fox make a copy of NBC’s show and put it on the air before them)
Once again, peoplecan’t seem to come up with something original. It will be a typical thing where some suit that doesn’t know what the premise is turns it into a dirty little secret show for the thrills, and not something gentle and kind like Post Secret is. How can you ACT a secret fear or desire? Gimme a break, something wonderful due to be trashed again by the so called networks..
I think this will turn the postsecret idea into a shallow compitition over who can make the worst secret, or whathave you. Why are we marketing people’s mistakes and confessions in such a corporate way? There’s a severe difference bewteen creatively expressing something you are ashamed or proud of, and writing some story to a television company who’s pretty much going to parade it to America. It’ll be some sick popularity contest to see who’s worse off. I think it’s a terrible idea, regardless of how it rips postsecret off.
I think it’s horrible how NBC (or any show) automatically thinks that they’re not only ‘original’ but can do BETTER than postsecret.
Leave P!S where it is and find something new to do. NBC would just screw it up anyway.
You guys are horrible for stealing this idea for PROFIT. Take it back – my secret is that I work at NBC and I wish they’d be a better company….oh wait, that’s fake, because I would only submit a TRUE secret to postsecret.com, not NBC!!!!! Screw you!
Screw you NBC! It figures that you have to steal new ideas since your shows stink….
The reason Postsecret is so popular is because it’s such a pure form of art and honesty.
All you get is a postcard to look at. You never see the person behind it or even the full story. It’s so amazingly intriguing and that’s what draws people over and over and over again.
I’ll be surprised if the show ever succeeds due mainly to the fact that it’ll have to be so unpersonal and probably a bit contrived. It’s a shame that they’d even try to attempt replicating such a pure, touching and personal form of art.
Fortunately for us, they cannot ever touch Postsecret.
im personally disgusted. what a classic way for a major cooperation to rip off something so good and personal to so many people
I think it is absurd. I think that he should be given credit as inspiration and given a share in the profits.
You ripped of post secret.
So, this will be “send in your secrets, and we’ll make videos of it” … Whether you decide you’re stealing it or not (Personally, yes, I think you may have well called VideoSecret and been a little more blatant), it sounds like it’ll just end up trashy.
I can’t imagine this show as having anything but the most base, degrading “secrets,” clips formed from reality TV show writers.
it’s lame that nbc would steal something so real … claiming it to be original. and, i agree with the post on the postsecret website … don’t come talking to the rest of us about “stealing” digital media. whatever. a new low … shame on nbc.
pathetic.
I’m amazed at how a company can instantly jump on the bandwagon when they believe that they will make money off of it. A few years ago, there was not a word of PostSecret anywhere except the people who one by one were spreading the word. I can’t begin to believe that this show idea is original in any way shape or form. I myself, and hopefully the PostSeret community and art community surrounding it, have lost respect for companies that take ideas for profit and give the truly ORIGINAL people no credit. You’ve taken a sad, sad turn NBC.
Modern technology would never have been invented if people hadn’t taken other people’s ideas and tweaked them. Maybe they are piggy backing off of Post Secret (which I love, and have even before it became popular) But, they are clearly taking it in a different direction, and who knows, this new direction may create a media revolution. It’d be different if they were just filming secrets cut out from PS’s books, but they aren’t.
I would suggest, NBC, that if you ARE going to do this show, that you offer PostSecret a large settlement of cash and acknowledgment RIGHT now…not because “they might sue you”, but because it is the right thing to do. Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but unless it is acknowledged and compensated, it is plagiary. PostSecret is a communal work of art, so you think it doesn’t belong to anyone, but you are wrong. It belongs to ALL of us, and we don’t want you stealing it.
I don’t believe that NBC is stealing, since they are using actors to portray the secrets in a completely different form of art. I can see how they received inspiration from Post Secret, but it’s not the same thing therefore not stealing.
However, this show sounds as if it won’t be very entertaining and the only reason there will be any sort of following is due to the viewer’s direct involvement with the show. People will watch just to see if their secret made it on air, they won’t necessarily watch because they enjoy the show itself.
NBC can’t pull it off. After PostSecret’s success, with all the things revolving around it, including the PSCommunity, NBC can’t just step in and ruin it for so many people. It would commercialise PostSecret and ruin it to alleged “secrets” that are just a reason to tell an interesting untrue story and lie. Give up NBC, it’s not worth it.
NBC should back down on this “original idea” – it’s not original and it’s not their idea. Besides, Salon Confessions is so much more appealing (sarcasm)
The PostSecret blog is a wonderful place for people to share their sincere secrets. Frank has refused advertising to protect the sincerity of the site– and NBC’s show will prove that taking something to the level where there are shareholders and producers determining what is a “valid” secret will destroy the beauty and peace that is found in sharing secrets with strangers. Nonetheless, the fact that NBC is stealing this idea shows that power that the PostSecret blog has had— congrats to Frank for maintaining his stance against advertising on his site. And I hope that NBC will reconsider.
I’m boycotting NBC, that’s for sure
You ripped off PostSecret. I don’t own a TV. This kind of bad behavior is part of why I don’t.
Never doubt the ability of corporate media to find a way to make money off every single idea. The beauty of PostSecret is that the postcards are genuine and made by the people with the secret themselves. Turning over the creative work to script-writers, actors and directors robs the secret of the thing that make it a secret: how personal it is.
People, including myself, who read PostSecret feel a connection with the person who writes the secret through their expression of it in postcard form. Does NBC really think they can achieve the same connection with mass-produced film segments on a television program? TV is not a personal medium (the postcard is) and hence is an entirely unsuitable medium for the “secrets” message.
It will be a sad day when a tv network reduces real human emotions to charicatures and stereotypes for monetary gain. Oh wait, that’s pretty much all they do.
I’m not so much disgusted that a television network stole someone else’s idea; this seems to happen all the time now and is nothing unusual, but more that people are actually now trying to… /merchandise/ the post secret community. The secrets submitted to the PostSecret are sincere and beautiful, and this just sounds like another creepy, voyeuristic, reality TV show that poses as being ‘open’ and ‘artistic’.
Same old idea, just using the PostSecret identity to try and legitimise it…
Hmmm, the show sounds boring and like every other boring reality show on air. It will turn into people trying to one-up each other with complete fabrications without any fail, because shows like this appeal to people who wouldn’t know art or truth if it bit them on the nose.
I’m mildly surprised NBC was the chump network to ripoff PostSecret, though. I’d have thought that was more Fox style. Why’d you have to sink so low, NBC?
This show is ripping of postsecret, just taking out the artistic aspect of postsecret. Honestly, i woundn’t watch this show – a secert isn’t really that much of a secert if you aren’t freaked about the whould world seeing you tell it. It’s just doesn’t have the same raw emotion, and human connection that Postsecret has that keeps us reading and supporting.
Not too mention, it dosn’t sould like this will support Hopeline or anything else that helps people.
I represent BWI – Bathroom Walls Incorporated, and I’d like to file a suit against NBC, PostSecret, TrueMomConfessions, Salon, Penthouse Forum, etc as we first patented the idea of anonymous confessionals posting back in 1961.
Don’t go through with this. As has been stated – when something so personal becomes something so corporate, the intimacy and truth are lost in a sea of mundane “one-upsmanship”.
Please. For the love of all that is relational and true: let your news programs report on the authenticity and reality of people who submit to PostSecret – and the urgency of the Suicide Hotline & Hopeline and how people can help – instead of pandering toward the masses who will inevitably cheapen the thought.
Putting aside the Post secret part of this for now,I think making this show would become more of a attention thing for those that send in the fears, secrets and desires even if no one knows it’s them. People will claim them as their own but no one will know for sure. I could see people just making up or giving half true secrets/fears/desires to see if they can have theirs on the show.
About the PostSecret part of this, I think leaving it as a card is best and though other people have had ideas like this before, I think that it would be far too easy to upset people about the similarities the show might have to PostSecret.
Aside from the fact that its ripping off postsecret, it’s just a poor idea for the company to attempt to persue. Postsecret is beautiful because it’s people pouring they’re hearts out in ways that they can’t do otherwise or in any other fashion but anonymously. Frank gave us an outlet to express our deepest secrets artistically and without censorship. NBC is wasting their time and attempting to profit from emotionally traumatizing fears and dreams and hopes of people from all over.
Your first mistake NBC, was placing a name so highly regarded as Post Secret, next to your own, and expecting us to take them together willingly.
Sure, the TV show sounds boring, and sure it sounds like it was inspired/ influenced by PostSecret, but come on! Sue them? This is the mentality online, that just because one website has an idea that no one else in the world can do anything similar. TV networks have been doing he “me too” thing for ever.
Really, what NBC should have done is contact PostSecret and signed them on as creative advisers.
Stick to oiginal TV shows like The Office.
…oh wait.
it’s not so much the blatant rip off that rubs me the wrong way (although i’m outraged about that too). it’s that Frank started the project as a way for people to annoymously and honestly share their secrets in a way that was really just for that person alone. it was to help people air their thoughts/fears/secrets in a public yet private way. it wasn’t a gimmick. it wasnt about making money. it was just for those who chose to take part toe xpress themselves in a way that was honest and pure. NBC, by creating such a program destroys the very premise underwhich the initial concept was developed. it will be for entertainment, for people looking through the glass into other people’s most private thoughts. its voyeuristic and not a little bit sick. it would be sterilized and polished up, with only the “secrets” with the biggest “public appeal” making it into the screen, all nice and homogenised. its not about sharing or helping people; its about raising station ratings and making money in advertising.
Frank’s way is purely about giving people a forum to express themselves, maybe finally come to terms with a dark past. i have great respect for that.
NBC, do us all a favour and a)find an original concept, and b) stop treating us like performing monkeys.
It seems that the network has already provided the proof against them by posting this in the synopses for the show: “Fears, Secrets and Desires is the peacock’s exclusive new original series. Think of it as a video version of PostSecret.” Changing mediums shouldn’t be enough to void any copyright issues
First off, I don’t own a television, and refuse to do so, simply because the majority of it is pandering to the baser instincts of people. That said, there’s no surprise, here. Nor should there be any shame. I respect Frank, and have been following PostSecret for a while now. But, PostSecret is not an original idea. It’s an old idea ported to a new medium. NBC is taking that old idea and porting it to yet another medium. Much as I hate to say it, NBC is doing nothing wrong. To say they stole the idea from Frank is absurd. You might be able to say they stole the idea from the Catholic Church (confession), maybe, and you would be closer to accurate. As a matter of fact, NBC will be adding a whole new layer to the concept. With PostSecret, you have the unadulterated postcard sent it, left to translation by the readers alone. With NBC’s thing, you add a third and fourth or more layers to the mix. So now you have the original secret, the director’s vision, the producer’s vision, the actor’s portrayals, and the personal interpretation of the viewers. It will, by the end of it, be so far removed from the utter simplicity of Frank’s vision, that the resemblance can be likened to that of a poodle to a wolf. We know they’re related, but if you didn’t know beforehand, and you saw them each, it wouldn’t be an obvious conclusion.
So that’s my two cents. Yes, NBC sucks balls. Frank and PostSecret are awesome. But in this situation, NBC’s not really the bad guy.
Of course it’s a rip-off. If it was an original idea that would have happened on its own, they wouldn’t refer to it as similar to Post-Secret. They’re using his name to bolster their own ratings with no endorsement from Post Secret. Shameful stealing of thunder.
Theft should be discouraged! I’m surprised Frank hasn’t commented on this issue yet.
Don’t get me wrong…I am a fan of postsecret…but postsecret did not start the the concept of disclosing a “secret” to a stranger…think HBO’s Taxicab Confessions (since 1995) or church confessionals.
THIS is EXACTLY why it is not worth watching tv.
NBC would bring even the internet down to itself (who knew THAT was possible).
The excuse that an outside producer may or may not have ripped off the idea is ridiculous on its face: NBC is obligated NOT TO STEAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, that they accepted the idea and continue to use it after being made aware of the situation is here for all to see. Whatever they may have been ignorant of, they know now. An outsider bringing in the idea does not remove culpablity. And the equivocating on “well, may be it’s just unintentionally similar” is patently disingenuous. NBC would make a porn-commercial of a successful, sincere site. The beauty of the situation: the stirring up of drama over their own theft: Is is theft? What do you think? The bodies at 9!
How ugly NBC is. No amount of happy PR or swooshing graphics changes the fact. Your actions speak for themselves. It’s not a surprise, it’s disgusting as usual.
and incidentally, making a postcard with YOUR ARTWORK ON IT and a secret is NOT equal to confession.
at all.
Oh, sure they got the idea from somewhere else. The network didn’t come up with it, it was just pitched to them. Well, you know what? Those are pretty weak excuses. The cold truth is that NBC greenlighted it, NBC will pay for its production and NBC will be profiting from it, so it IS NBC’s product. By the way, aside from the blatant content thievery that this is, let’s not forget that this new push for user generated content is yet another dodge around paying actual writers and other production personell. The networks aren’t forging a brave new artistic path, they are trying to squirm out of having to pay anyone residuals, since “reality” programming was specifically excluded from that concession in the new contract.
While I’m curious to see how NBC would portray this post-secret spin off, I wouldn’t feel comfortable watching it. My loyalty lies with Frank and the rest of the postsecret community. You see, what NBC obviously fails to realize is the real impact that post-secret has had on so many of our lives. It’s become the common denominator of today’s human issues and it’s what unites us and makes us feel unified with eachother. When you take something so pure and so profoundly affecting to so many people, and you try to exploit that goodness for profit, of COURSE you’re going to have an issue on your hands. That’s the one big thing about the post-secret community that NBC needs to grasp: it’s united us and we’re going to protect that with everything we’ve got. Post-secret is a powerful thing, and unfortunately for you, NBC, you don’t stand a chance.
Frank is not completely innocent here…you all make him out to be a saint…I am sure he would agree that he is NOT a saint. he does after all sell a lot of your secrets in those books…you don’t get a cut of that…
This is disgusting. Postsecret is special to a lot of people, its unique, its different. NBC is not only ripping Postsecret off, but also destroying the entire idea for many people. Its going to become silly secrets that aren’t worth hearing about, and its going to be more about the ‘Hollywood’ aspect, actors and stuff. I do hope that NBC comes to their senses and doesn’t produce this show.
There’s something degrading to the secret itself having it shown how Hollywood wants to rather than how the secret’s owner wants to. We all know that Hollywood often plays up things to make them more “appealing” when that’s not how it was originally established. A post card designed by your own hand to express what you want how you want it is more personal than a story passed through several other hands and twisted until it works. I will always prefer to see how the sharers want their secrets expressed on PostSecret rather than how some group of directors want to share them on NBC.
I think nbc should give credit to postsecret. & money too.
because well duh it was Franks idea & because the idiots at nbc can’t think of anything new they rip off of other people.
One of the reasons why Postsecret is so touching is because each postcard was written by a real person. Each postcard is a window into another human soul. I doubt that same magic will translate to TV, but who watches TV anymore anyway?
PostSecret fans….maybe you should be upset at frank for stealing your secrets, fears and desires and making millions off of them rather than be mad at NBC copying an enaler
It’s stupid to consider the idea of sharing a secret in any manner an infringement of copyright. What in the world does Warren do but simply collate the stuff he receives? Plus, while in the beginning Postsecret was interesting and gave an insight into people’s fears and desires now it reads like a bunch of Emo kids viral version of cutting themselves in order to get attention. More than half of all the posts are absolutely cringeworthy. And some of the ‘responses’ posted underneath the cards themselves are embarrassing. You get a sense that rather than people puting out their darkest secrets they’ve kept for years, you have shallow, pathetic individuals who live their lives seeking something worthy to put on Postsecret.