How Ashton Kutcher wins at using New Media

Ashton Kutcher is far from a popular celebrity in the tabloids or the blogosphere. The toy boy of Demi Moore has come in for a lot of criticism, some of it deserved since he hooked up with Demi.

And yet, Ashton Kutcher has embraced new media, from Twitter to Qik, and you can only say he’s doing it right.

We first wrote about Kutcher on Twitter back in January, when he said words beyond his years, suggesting that booing outgoing President George W Bush was disrespectful. Many may not have agreed, but we got it straight from him, and that’s the key difference. Not filtered, or misconstrued, but directly from him.

Kutcher isn’t a one hit wonder with new media, and he’s taken to Qik as well to show bits of his life. Recently he came under fire for criticizing a neighbor creating noise; again, a situation where some disagreed, but the key difference is that it was unfiltered. On Feb 9 he recorded on his mobile paparazzi calling Demi Moore a “a crazy little bitch.” The key difference was that for the time that video was taken, Kutcher controlled the output. Not the Paps, not his media handlers or reps, him.

Whether you agree or not with each message is in some ways irrelevant. Celebrities properly using tools like Qik or Twitter (ie: not letting their publicist or reps update it) really break down the barriers between what is reported to be the truth, and what actually is, even when it’s not always good.

Some won’t like me saying this, but Kutcher, along with Stephen Fry are leading examples of how celebrities could and should be communicating with fans.

For me, I’ve never been an Ashton Kutcher fan before, but now I’m hooked. Honest, raw feedback from a star in the spotlight is something we need more of. Sure, I don’t always agree with everything he says, what I do agree with is that it’s clear that what we are seeing comes from him, not some publicist lead PR driven version of what he should be.

Even if you don’t like him, credit him for being out there; he leads by example.

You can follow Kutcher on Twitter here.