[WesternBlood]

Essentially the long and short of it is to get ahead of expected criticism by pushing the diversity aspects of an IP to shield it from fans who will rightfully call out bad writing or changing of an existing IP for woke purposes.

See: Ghostbusters reboot with the women, LIttle Mermaid race swap, or what happened with G4 when Frosk ranted about sexism in gaming. Often before anyone has seen the project in question, marketing teams use this to gin up discussion and publicity in an attempt to explain away the negative reviews. I have linked a 10 part twitter feed which goes into depth on it and it is important to be able to put the ideas to words in a way that can counter the usual gas lighting that is thrown back at you when you correctly call out overwrought woke decisions based on identity instead of actual merit.




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[El Rey]

Actually great, I normally don't read Twitter shit but I enjoyed it. It's glaringly obvious in my opinion that theyr'e doing this but doesn't make it any less sad.

 

[HellforLeather]

TThe Drinker did a video on this a couple weeks ago

 

[GreyHorace]

I don't see how insulting your potential fanbase counts as a viable marketing strategy. I think the average person doesn't appreciate being told they're racist/sexist/homophobic or whatever for not watching a piece of media. It's stupidity of the highest order and will only serve to drive potential viewers away.

Hollywood should have learned this lesson HARD with the 2016 Ghostbusters. No amount of fan-baiting as you call it could hide the fact that film was a total crapshow. But no, it seems they've doubled down on this strategy and it's even yielded even more shite like Rings of Power and that atrocious The Woman King movie. Yet there seems to be some hope in the horizon, if David Sazlav cleaning house at Warner Bros of any woke project and creators is any indication.

 

[Calcium]

Hollywood should have learned this lesson HARD with the 2016 Ghostbusters. No amount of fan-baiting as you call it could hide the fact that film was a total crapshow. But no, it seems they've doubled down on this strategy and it's even yielded even more shite like Rings of Power and that atrocious The Woman King movie. Yet there seems to be some hope in the horizon, if David Sazlav cleaning house at Warner Bros of any woke project and creators is any indication.

They've failed to learn up to this point, but I'm hoping the success of Top Gun: Maverick will have them see the light. No woke shit = $$$$. It's not difficult.

 

[Saruhashi]

I don't see how insulting your potential fanbase counts as a viable marketing strategy. I think the average person doesn't appreciate being told they're racist/sexist/homophobic or whatever for not watching a piece of media. It's stupidity of the highest order and will only serve to drive potential viewers away.

Hollywood should have learned this lesson HARD with the 2016 Ghostbusters. No amount of fan-baiting as you call it could hide the fact that film was a total crapshow. But no, it seems they've doubled down on this strategy and it's even yielded even more shite like Rings of Power and that atrocious The Woman King movie. Yet there seems to be some hope in the horizon, if David Sazlav cleaning house at Warner Bros of any woke project and creators is any indication.

I don't see it but there will be something to it.
These companies pay experts a lot of money to figure this kind of shit out.
When all four of Star Wars, Star Trek, Marvel and LOTR are going for the exact same marketing tactic then there must be something in it.

If I were to guess I would say the biggest risk to a movie or show, that is a big name because of the huge fanbase, would be negative word of mouth and/or apathy.

By stoking outrage it means that your show is the biggest thing out there. However that outrage can only really be carried by anonymous people online or content creators that don't give a shit and are making money from it.

For ordinary people this kind of outrage creates a dilemma. In the past you could have gone to your workplace or school or college etc and said "that new TV show is total garbage" and maybe that negative word of mouth spreads. Now there's this whole big racism or sexism drama around these shows so people may be less inclined to say "hey, you know that show that the media says is only disliked by racist incels, well, I don't like it". This might not be a situation someone who just wants to get their work down and climb the ladder wants to find themselves in.

People are today, right now, willing to call each other "racist" and "sexist" over not liking a TV show. Think about that. Not using slurs. Not hating people of other races. Not treating women like shit. No. Just saying that you think Rey in Star Wars is a Mary Sue and Rose is one of the worst characters ever is enough. That's enough to be bundled in with the worst kind of people. That's not happening by accident.

 

[Saruhashi]

They've failed to learn up to this point, but I'm hoping the success of Top Gun: Maverick will have them see the light. No woke shit = $$$$. It's not difficult.

It'll take time. If it becomes too difficult to get investment in new projects unless they are woke then I am not sure if it'll work. For now it seems clear that the content with the biggest budgets, the biggest level of investment, is also the content with the most woke stuff.

 

[GreyHorace]

People are today, right now, willing to call each other "racist" and "sexist" over not liking a TV show. Think about that. Not using slurs. Not hating people of other races. Not treating women like shit. No. Just saying that you think Rey in Star Wars is a Mary Sue and Rose is one of the worst characters ever is enough. That's enough to be bundled in with the worst kind of people. That's not happening by accident.

It speaks of how emasculated Western culture is if people are going to offended that someone dared to not like a piece of media. Like you said, it's the pettiest reason for someone to tag you a racist or sexist. I'd laugh and tell the person to fuck off in most cases, but then you stand the risk of getting ostracized by others for it.

Like recently, our local Star Wars fan group was discussing the Obi-Wan series and the 'racism' controversy regarding Moses Ingram. I, and others, pointed out that Disney is using the controversy to distract from the fan criticism with regards to how awful the show was. Immediately some asshole in the group starts tagging me as an Alt-Righter who follows Tucker Carlson and part of the Fandom Menace. Like WTF? I told him straight up why I didn't like the show and why people are being duped by Disney and their fan-baitiing. Nope. He wouldn't listen and remained convinced I was some loser incel who hates black people and women. I just threw my hands up and ended the conversation there, as I saw we were just going to argue endlessly about it.

 

[Saruhashi]

It speaks of how emasculated Western culture is if people are going to offended that someone dared to not like a piece of media. Like you said, it's the pettiest reason for someone to tag you a racist or sexist. I'd laugh and tell the person to fuck off in most cases, but then you stand the risk of getting ostracized by others for it.

Like recently, our local Star Wars fan group was discussing the Obi-Wan series and the 'racism' controversy regarding Moses Ingram. I, and others, pointed out that Disney is using the controversy to distract from the fan criticism with regards to how awful the show was. Immediately some asshole in the group starts tagging me as an Alt-Righter who follows Tucker Carlson and part of the Fandom Menace. Like WTF? I told him straight up why I didn't like the show and why people are being duped by Disney and their fan-baitiing. Nope. He wouldn't listen and remained convinced I was some loser incel who hates black people and women. I just threw my hands up and ended the conversation there, as I saw we were just going to argue endlessly about it.

Had a similar experience with friends way back when The Last Jedi came out.
Two of the lads fell out because one accused the other of hating women and then he wouldn't take it back.
This is because the other guy didn't like Rey or Rose or Holdo.
Same guy was obsessed with Russian bots and finally ended up losing his shit over George Floyd and fell out of our social circle after that.

I think once certain types see something as being "exclusionary" they just see it as some kind of moral crusade to force that thing to be inclusive. To the point where they will accept anything as long as it's seen as being inclusive and they will see any kind of victory over "gatekeeping" as a huge thing.

Easy modes in videogames is an easy one to use as an example. How come it's always the people who are pro easy mode that seem to be the most angry and abusive? They genuinely seem like they want the people who love a franchise to lose a part of that thing.

I think if you went to places like ResetEra and asked them what they think of gatekeeping it would be something that they really, really, really hate. If they feel like something is exclusionary, then they will really get worked up about it.

Even going for a hike is racist these days - https://www.opb.org/news/article/oregon-northwest-racism-outdoors-nature-hiking/
Literally, they will complain that going outside and going for a fucking walk is not inclusive enough.

It's like they see a community of people having fun and enjoying their thing and for whatever reason they just want to ruin it. They dress it up as "I just want to be included" but I don't know why they actually do it.

 

[Stilton Disco]

It's also important to remember that actual sales or viewers are far less important than meeting the EGS guidelines for investment capital.

As long as companies like Blackrock continue to offer more money than the audience, there is no incentive whatsoever to make a product most people full stop, let alone fans, will want.

 

[Snes nes]

Well fan baiting only works if you buy the product which I mean people do anyways so they'll keep making crappy films because they make money

 

[GreyHorace]

It's also important to remember that actual sales or viewers are far less important than meeting the EGS guidelines for investment capital.

As long as companies like Blackrock continue to offer more money than the audience, there is no incentive whatsoever to make a product most people full stop, let alone fans, will want.

Does the ESG really cover the billion Amazon spent on Rings of Power? Somehow I have serious doubts.