Borkowski Weekly Media Trends
The PR gods have not been kind this week. Culminating in an abject communications meltdown from the government over new lockdowns, the last week of July has seen far more failure than it has success. In this week’s Trends we discuss an offensive Anti-Semitic rant from former ‘Godfather of Grime’ Wiley, Donald Trump’s dangerous distraction tactics, another failure from an iconic arts awards ceremony and Big Tech’s shambolic display in Washington D.C.
Wiley Catastrophe - Running Out of Road
Our infrequent references to the 'Godfather of Grime', Wiley, in this newsletter have placed him firmly in the ageing shock jock category. This can be best-described as a loose cabal of middle-aged, A-List, male rock and rap stars - Green Day, Eminem, even Drake has applied for early membership – who have attempted to rage against the dying of their own commercial peak by resorting to stunt tactics that would have seemed really edgy and rebellious to their teenage following in the 90s and 00s, but, when exposed to today's worldly yet morally fastidious 'Zoomers', are either greeted with a condescending eye-roll, or outright cancellation.
Lately these shock jock tactics have mutated from cringeworthy but pretty harmless 'OK Boomer' nonsense into harbingers of a full-on psychological meltdown. Signs of the latter phenomenon are evident in the deterioration of Kanye's presidential run, some of the behaviour described in Johnny Depp’s libel trial (we can probably count him as a rocker), and now Wiley's sustained antisemitic tirade, which has seen him banned from every major social media platform.
If these are publicity stunts then they're in extremely poor taste and totally ineffective unless followed up by the comebacks to end all prostrate, grovelling, sickeningly worthy comebacks; stage-managed to a degree hitherto unseen in celebrity reputation management. But the feeling of purpose and control which usually distinguishes a stunt from a genuine meltdown is not there, and it looks as though Wiley, like Kanye and Depp, has genuinely gone off the deep end, perhaps for good this time. He won't be the last of this nascent generation of ageing shock jocks.
Trump: The Joe Exotic of 'Dead Cat' Tactics
There isn’t a more overused and more misinterpreted phrase in political communications than a ‘dead cat’ strategy, but yesterday we really saw one.
I’m sure that you noticed that the American political media concentrated on Trump finally publicly saying something that has been endlessly subjected the ‘will he? won’t he?’ treatment: that the 2020 election has to be delayed. Although it isn't legally possible for The Donald to unilaterally delay the election, many in the media (including the many pundits who are handsomely paid for being outraged at each latest Trump injustice) kicked the outrage machine into action, finally pressing send on the thousands of tweets that had been sat in their drafts for months now. Front pages wrote themselves.
All this was extremely convenient for Mr. Trump, as merely moments before he pressed send, the gravest blow to his election chances thudded home. For the man who posed as the first President-CEO, the news that the economy had shrunk by 32.9%, the worst single quarter on record, could be fatal if it is played right by Biden.
Therefore it came as no surprise that mere moments after the announcement, a still warm carcass of an massive, unfortunate moggy immediately thundered into the middle of your dinner table.
Rina's Revenge
The 2019 Mercury Awards was hailed as the most political in years, sparked by shortlisted artists addressing the hostile environment policy, austerity and racism. Unfortunately, the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) – organisers of the Mercury and BRIT awards – have fallen at the first hurdle with this year’s nomination.
Twitter was ablaze following the discovery that pop musician Rina Sawayama was not eligible for the award. Her album SAWAYAMA received widespread critical acclaim but was snubbed because she doesn't hold a UK passport, despite living in the UK for 25 years and identifying as British.
Ironically, back in 2018 the BPI gave Sawayama a grant from their Music Export Growth Scheme, which specifically supports British musicians and music organisations looking to market themselves abroad. Furthermore, SAWAYAMA reflects on the dichotomy of living in the UK while also feeling a strong tie to her birthplace. Ultimately, this is an almighty snub – one that could cause permanent reputational damage to the BPI.
Their enforcement of this technicality has left a bitter taste in the mouth, denying one of the UK’s up-and-coming stars the praise she deserves. Unfortunately, this is yet another example of an institutional awards ceremony getting it very, very wrong.
Tectonic Shift to Big Tech vs TikTok
Appearing in front of the US Congress on Wednesday, the respective heads of Apple, Google, Facebook and Amazon appeared worse for wear. Members of the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee grilled the four men, arguably some of the most powerful in the world, over claims that they abuse their power to achieve and sustain their historic monopolies.
At the same time, TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer was up to something. A blog postauthored by Mayer advocating for ‘fair competition and transparency’ was exquisitely timed, going live just hours before his competitors were due to face lawmakers over that exact issue.
Now, Mayer’s intervention was no simple, good-hearted plea for fairness and cooperation. TikTok has its own back against the wall, with lingering suspicion about the company’s links to the Chinese state damaging its own credibility. But with this carefully considered, provocative yet thoughtful move, they cut a sharp contrast with Zuckerberg, Bezos and co., all of whom appeared tired, defensive, even sinister. It’s an astute play from a brand that has still has a lot to prove and isn’t afraid to do so.
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Borkowski Weekly Media Trends
As the Twitterati drool over TayTay's surprise new release and Emily Maitlis' Tatler photoshoot, here are some of the other eyecatching stories from that past week featuring some of our favourite subjects; Political Infighting, Fast Food Wars, Fake News and Futurism.
Corbyn's Last Stand?
Wise political communication is all about timing. It’s about ensuring that your words have maximum effect at the moment you can get most things done. This maxim is even more difficult to stick to for Kier Starmer, who has inherited a Labour Party in complete turmoil. Due to COVID-19 he hasn’t been able to enact the traditional staff turnover so hasn’t been able to fill central office with loyalists, while his predecessor has left the party in electoral ruins and vulnerable to significant legal action. Moreover, Jeremy Corbyn still weilds power as this week's legal power play attests.
The party is rapidly approaching a crisis that not many people saw coming.
The first objective Starmer appears to have set himself is to repair bridges with the Jewish community, and his ruthlessness in sacking Rebecca Long-Bailey has set a precedent under which Corbyn must know that his current behaviour is a challenge to his successor, and that Starmer may feel that he has to expel him from the party.
Starmer must know that if Alastair Campbell could be expelled in 48 hours (proving that the expulsion mechanism worked very quickly against Corbyn’s enemies and very slowly when applied to political allies like Ken Livingston) then Corbyn's threat of crowd-funded legal action against Labour whistleblowers must be defensibly sackable.
Perhaps Corbyn has realised that a confrontation is coming and that it is better to force the issue early before his clout inevitably wanes with time. The former leader may have proven useless in the fight to run the country, but the far-left have a fearsome recent record in internal battles...
Fast Food Wars: Ready to Reheat
With the UK slowly creaking back to some kind of life after months of lockdown, we’re beginning to see brands getting back to their old ways. Wasting no time at all, it appears the Fast Food Wars are back with a vengeance. The boom in takeaways has given the Subways and Taco Bells of the world a reason to force themselves back into our feeds in a bitter battle for omni-channel supremacy.
Some fight the war with respect and chivalry; others prize cheap clicks above all else. KFC’s new collaboration with Crocs is an example of the latter: a crude, obscene idea that no one can feasibly want to actually buy but will almost certainly drive disgusted shares. On the other hand is an astute comms operation like Burger King, ready to jump on the news agenda, but never feeling the need to stoop to unbecoming lows.
Which strategy is most effective? Here comes a common theme for Borkowski’s Weekly Trends: It’s not always easy to achieve viral success, but it’s much harder to sustain meaningful attention and even respect, especially if your product is a guilty pleasure for many consumers. KFC might be performing well on Google Trends today, but Burger King are winning the war.
The Future of News Values
In the transforming world of the news, celebrity, death and scandal still reign supreme as the factors most able to turn a nonevent into a headline. But new catalysts are developing, including one exemplified this week in a story conjured by arch-ringmaster of the tech industry and frequent feature of this newsletter, Elon Musk.
Futurism is a term whose meaning is being stripped away like carrion by brands looking to scavenge a semblance of relevance from a google search, but in general terms, offering a flashy and quasi-sci-fi solution to tomorrow's problems, today, is a good way to make headlines.
Musk, ever the showman, this week gave us a textbook example of how to leverage the concept of futurism into news by announcing that his subsidiary 'Neuralink' was releasing a brain-computer interface to stream music directly into our brains.
Necessary? Not sure. Scientifically possible? Even less sure. Are we going to write about it? Everyone already did. Although Musk is the most eye-catching proponent of this tactic (in his Marvel / Bond villain sort of way), the likes of Apple, Google and Huawei also employ similar means regularly, grafting terms such as Machine Learning, AI or VR to any snazzy but unproven concept to make it sound more scientific and, crucially, more newsworthy. So here's our attempt at some comms futurology: Expect this kind of story to get more frequent, more histrionic and less plausible in the coming months.
Cash for Conspiracies
Fake News is a political weapon, but the likes of President Trump’s overzealous use of the phrase has left us numb. However, such is the impact of the artform that it's beginning to loosen our collective grasp, as consumers, on the truth itself. For some, this depressing fact has been a commercial opportunity. .
In the post-clickbait economy, conspiracy theories run riot online to the point that they're almost impossible to suppress, despite US tech giants’ pledges to plug the gaping hole left by those exploiting the gullible.
A Press Gazette article this week demonstrated how characters like David Icke and Alex Jones have made millions in this climate, with fringe alternative media sources reeling in advertisers and readers with seemingly deep pockets.
Turbo-charged by social media companies happy to turn a blind eye in order to cash in on this trend, you have a cesspit of divisive characters earning a living off outrage and conspiracies.
As we learn more about this post-truth landscape, social media giants have started to take action. Reported today, Twitter and TikTok have blocked hashtags relating to “QAnontruth” – the popular conspiracy that Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping paedophiles in government, business and the media.
Despite this crackdown and related efforts/pledges to close down dangerous accounts spreading Fake News, the platform conspiracists have been given over the years may have done enough to power lunatic fringe outlets. At this stage, is it all too little too late?
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In a week where Caitlyn Jenner was mooted as President-elect Kanye's running mate, Dane Baptiste's production company got him mixed up with Richard Blackwood, and Clive Tyldesley followed Julia Sawalha's lead of trying to use Twitter as an employment tribunal board of appeal, we've tried to cover topics which make the news agenda feel less like an episode of Brass Eye...which wasn't entirely easy.
The Week's Most Electrifying Stunt
The gradual easing of lockdown has seen brands from far-and-wide peacocking the superiority of the health and safety regulations they’ve installed to ensure a pandemic-proof return.
But most have stopped short of using their re-opening as an excuse for an all-out stunt, reasoning (reasonably) that the safety of their clientele from an ongoing global pandemic is not something to risk being seen to take lightly.
But the media agenda and public relations are rarely governed by reasonable people: step forward a Cornish publican who made international headlines for installing an electric fence around his bar, The Star Inn in St Just, in a putative effort to discourage people from breaking social distancing measures.
Impractical, irascible, and possibly even dangerous though it may be, the caper has captured our collective feeling of humbug about the continuing restrictions on our daily lives (and the inability of some to adhere to them). However, the electric fence is a case study of how a stunt designed to be a flash in the pan (or a shock to the balls might be a better analogy) will only ever have a fleeting impact.
A mere three days on from our jubilation at the story, its architect Johnny McFadden was telling the i that his flirtation with fame hadn’t (yet) limited the danger that his pub might have to shut due to the impact of COVID. For a public relations campaign to have a genuine impact, it needs to be able to sustain for longer than an electric shock, and say something meaningful, not just something loud.
Who knows, maybe Johnny will keep the story rolling, perhaps by installing crocodile-filled moats between booths, or shooting an air rifle at disorderly queuers. But unless he does, don’t expect Electric Fence Pub’s newfound fame - and resultant upsurge in customers- to last beyond this summer’s Cornish staycation boom.
Graun in 60 Seconds
More sad news from media land as the Guardian cuts loose 180 jobs. Every job lost is a tragedy and at this time its even more pronounced – not only on an individual level but on a societal level. We need journalists speaking truth to power and making sense of the wild, unpredictable and disorientating news agenda more than ever.
We only have one question of the decision makers in Guardian towers who decided they’d rather cut staff off than impose any kind of paywall… are they sacrificing their own jobs for their utopian morality, or just those of others?
It'll Be Over By Christmas
With the latest easing of lockdown today, Boris promised that we will ‘return to normality, possibly in time for Christmas’.
That might be an achievable target, but his decision to put it in such bald terms - and yet set such a vague target- has drawn yet more derision from the commentariat. For someone who professes to love history so much, you’d have thought that saying something bad would be over by Christmas would have rung more of a bell?
The WWI parallels are unfortunate - especially considering that no wartime leader has ever actually had those words concretely attributed to them- but the fact that they’ve come off the back of a recent record of underestimating the crisis and overpromising the recovery compounds the issue.
When your soft underbelly is your enemies portraying you as at best a bumbling bullsh*tter and at worst a calculating lier, proffering a positive outcome which could be so easily disproved in the near future is a big risk. And what’s the reward? Some cheap popularity points with those political nostalgists who think of the World Wars as a halcyon golden age?
In reality all Boris has done is made explicit a promise so rash that even the donkeys from the brutal ‘lions led by donkeys’ aphorism distanced themselves from it. Another clanger.
The Washington ???s
It’s been a rocky week for the NFL franchise formerly known as the Washington Redskins. Serious allegations of widespread sexual harassment hint at a crisis which could usurp even being named after a racial slur as the heaviest millstone round their neck.
Until then it looked like another case of a heritage brand belatedly, begrudgingly catching up with the times. Much like The Simpsons and Family Guy finally recasting characters of colour who had been voiced by white actors, the time to lead had long since passed, and all the franchise could hope to do is play catch-up by jettisoning a name which has been the subject of campaigns to remove it for half a century.
That said, they’ve done the right thing and, timing aside, probably gone about it in the right way - not rushing the selection of a new name will give their fans the chance to choose it, which, barring some kind of Boaty McBoatface type scandal will create a new brand which is less contentious and more sustainable. Of course, America being America, there will always be those who long for the hallowed racism of old, but they would have been outnumbered by those in a largely liberal city, ready to welcome the franchise into the 21st century, were it not for this fresh scandal.
Bets on a new name? In the spirit of life making parody redundant, they could ape the football mascot from Community and go for the Washington Human Beings? Politico crowd sourced ideas and came up with the excellent Washington Swamp Things. Ideas on a postcard.
Yvan Eht Nioj for the Gaming Generaton
Modern warfare has many interesting paradoxes – both the UK and the US have rising military budgets and both are troubled by their inability to recruit sufficiently to fill out their ranks. Soldiers aren’t as publicly idolised as they were, and a shrinking world means that poor young men can find other ways of seeing it, PTSD is much more widely understood and wars among civilian populations rather than in pitched battles, all mean that fewer young people are taking the King’s shilling than ever.
The UK approached this problem with the famous ‘snowflake’ series, promoting the military as a place that young people can go to find camaraderie, without any trace of toxic masculinity or bullying. Controversy made it the most famous campaign in a generation, and while numbers of signatures rose – plenty of these new converts weren’t able to survive the grueling general training. Ahead of Dominic Cummings' much touted shake up of military procurement, he would do well to teach them a thing or two about getting millions of proud Brits to sign up to making a massive, generational-defining decision without reading the small print.
The US (as always) is in worse shape. It still boasts the most powerful military in the world, but in terms of manpower the nation's massive obesity problem as verging on a national security issue. But instead of setting their drill sergeants loose on some chubby cadets, they are reaching out through the internet to reach impressionable boys playing online war games. So Twitch (the platform where you can watch people play games) is now full of Army, Navy and Air Force e-sports experts. Presumably this is at least partially motivated by the increasing prevalence of drone warfare, which requires a skillset that much closer to video gaming than the warfare of eras bygone. But it must also have seemed a foolproof way of befriending impressionable, posturing teenage boys...until it suddenly very much wasn’t. Teenage boys (being teenage boys) simply started listing US military war crimes, resulting in comments being deleted, and the US army being pulled into a free speech debate. Not quite a rout, but you can imagine military strategists muttering darkly about conscription. In the other camp, smug teenagers everywhere can congratulate themselves on inflicting yet another humiliating defeat on adults trying to impress them. A forever war, but one with only ever one winner.
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Borkowski Weekly Media Trends
Borkowski Weekly Media Trends
Politics and showbiz galore this week!
The Cancel Culture Wars Escalate
We've been discussing the concept of 'cancelling' a public figure for some time and this week saw the escalation of the simmering Culture War between - at its absolute extremes- keyboard warriors intent on deplatforming anyone whose views and actions have ever been discriminatory, un-PC, or otherwise blemished by illiberal sentiment; and free speech absolutists, who think that anyone should be able to say anything, no matter how offensive or dangerous, without consequence.
It's an argument devoid of nuance at the moment. A letter published byHarper's Magazine and signed by 150 public figures warned that earnest efforts to hold people to account were boiling over into intolerance, but rather undermined its own argument when a series of disagreements broke out between its signatories about where the boundary was between an honest difference of opinion, and outright offensive speech. The case against cancel culture was cancelled, and became another skirmish in a nascent culture war.
The rest of the media were quick to weigh in, usually on the side of pragmatism, second chances, innocence until proven guilty and free speech over deplatforming.
But again any argument which attempts to impose limits on cancel-worth crime is fraught with the risk of appearing to condone actions or words which are genuinely hateful, abhorrent or criminal. The Times were a case in point, publishing an article admonishing Cancel Culture in which they appeared to present such figures as R Kelly, who has been accused of serious sexual offenses, as victims of a witch hunt.
The Kanye West Wing
Kanye West’s announcement that he’s running for president is the perfect parable-cum-satire of our hollow, vacuous, venal brand- and celebrity-led obsession with ‘purpose’.
Kanye is running despite not employing staff, registering to appear on the ballot or even apparently knowing how to attach a photo to a tweet. Why?
It's unlikely that he wants to be president at all. Instead we’re witnessing a publicity stunt that sums up the world we’re living in and particularly current public discourse.
Being too ideological might lead a public figure to get cancelled, but not having a political agenda in such a hyperpoliticised society leads to irrelevance which, for the likes of Kanye, is worse.
It’s the same thinking which leads brands to suture a BLM or Pride logo over their festeringly racist / homophobic working environment, and it’s always guided by the same shibboleth: Purpose.
But Kanye doesn’t really have any convictions to which he can attribute purpose. So he’s surveyed the landscape for an example of someone in the public eye who doesn’t have a shred of principle or a single authentic political conviction, but who nonetheless forms part of our public political discourse.
And he’s found one…in The White House.
Of course, if his frame of reference extended across the pond, he’d find another example in Number 10.
And actually, if President Ye’s insights extended far enough through British history, he’d see four decades of this histrionic brand of look-at-me politics in the form of the Monster Raving Loony Party, whose founders, I’m sure, had they known the influence their modus operandi would be having on Global Politics now, would have killed the thing on day two.
Massive Attack, Purpose & the Modern Protest Song
You could argue that the pinnacle of modern music is the protest song. From Strange Fruit and Imagine to Fortunate Son and Rock The Casbah, our most loved music isn’t about the fellowship of humankind, or love and breakups – they are about injustice. But as our culture hurtles forward, so are our relationship with modern protest songs. While old, unchanged and much-loved slave songs cause friction when sung in the cradle of white privilege at Twickenham stadium, Massive Attack today released the latest protest song – and it is a made a striking cultural evolution.
In our ever-spun world, where the lyrics of Give Peace a Chance could easily be featured as a billboard for a multi-national fast fashion brand, Massive Attack’s could never be repurposed by a smiling, corporate monstrosity. They have collaborated with three artists, and three political and academic figures to write their typically moody beats beneath three speeches. And these are no anodyne sentiments, these are speeches on sustainability, tax avoidance and universal basic income.
Where Fatboy Slim first remixed Greta into Right Here, Right Now and the 1975 featured her at more length, this has to be the final step of politics and art diverging entirely. It shows us the saturation of our culture by politics, and it shows us that Massive Attack are still ahead of the curve. And if you’re still unimpressed – imagine how good it must be that I’m looking forward to dancing in a sweaty room to a song about the need for a sales tax.
Listen here.
Chicken Run 2: Coming Home to Roost?
Actor Julia Sawalha has written an incensed open letter after being dropped from the cast of the upcoming Chicken Run sequel on the shaky (and arguably demonstrably false) grounds that her voice has aged.
The fanbase are in uproar, Aardman’s reputation has taken a dent, and she is trending. But was it the right move?
Go Julia!
Following Julia Sawalha’s claims that Aardman Animations fired her from the role of ‘Ginger’ in the upcoming and highly anticipated return of Chicken Run, the animation company appear callous and out of touch in their treatment of the actor.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Sawalha claimed she was dismissed for sounding ‘too old,’ 20 years after shooting the first Chicken Run.
She wasn’t given a chance to do a voice test to determine her suitability for the role, instead she was informed out of the blue and via email.
Aardman’s failure to control this situation – from poorly managing her dismissal to Sawalha’s statement, will ultimately hurt their brand. Particularly under the backdrop of fighting off allegations that they’re selling out to American studios for 15 years (Netflix deal?) and now fundamental hypocrisies when comparing this to Wallace & Gromit, for instance – with Peter Sallis keeping his role as Wallace for decades up until he died.
Sawalha’s been widely supported across social media, with the vast majority expressing support and some claiming they’d boycott the film.
Once again, failure to understand the current ‘cancel culture’ has hurt another brand. Blatant disregarding Sawalha in this process is bad PR and Aardman will have to take control; an uphill battle considering they can’t simply reinstate Sawalha without facing more backlash. They’ll have to get their story straight or this could be a reputational nightmare.
Bad Move
Like any media strategy it depends on whether she will hit her objectives.
Firstly - will she be able to reclaim the role? Well perhaps. Perhaps Netflix will decide that they want to start outsourcing their hiring decisions to Twitter. Or perhaps not… maybe Netflix will decide that they cannot allow the precedent of talent using social media to force studios into backpedalling to stand as it would entirely undermine their agency and control.
Secondly - is she likely to get more work? I doubt it! Why would anyone hire someone who has a history of publicly torching ex-employers on the way out!? Aardman are taking a pounding on Twitter, and any future studio must surely question whether her talent outweighs her risk. She isn’t Marlon Brando
From time to time, we all get sacked, we all get dumped. It’s part of life. But whatever happens, you don’t write a self-pitying post about it online. If you want to make a statement to affect change then do it like Brando – do it when you reject an award – don’t do it when you don’t make the cut. This was less Don Draper, and more Deontay Wilder.
Sport Documentaries: A New Breed of Spin
The release of ‘All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur’ sees another sporting documentary trending. These fly-on-the-wall-styled series gives viewers a taste of the dressing room atmosphere, personalities that make up a sports team and some of the business dealings we aren't otherwise privy to.
Producers attempt to capture never-seen-before moments galvanising curiosity and excitement. Despite viewers feeling a sense of rawness behind these moments in cases including the Manchester City documentary and lockdown hit The Last Dance, figures like Pep Guardiola and Michael Jordan have actually been able to present their story’s under this veil allowing them to totally control every facet of the message going out.
Tottenham Hotspurs will be no different - with Levy presumably pulling the strings, financially speaking, this will likely be a shrewd move to control the club’s image.
An example where the messaging wasn't quite so engineered was Sunderland 'Til I Die documentary - following the football clubs journey down to the lower tiers of the footballing League - whilst they struggle with their finances, Netflix were able to have full artistic control presenting a stark picture but an excellent viewing experience.
This trend could be a genius bit of PR for sporting behemoths as they monetise their series whilst controlling the narrative through a producers’ lens. As we will undoubtedly see more of these styled documentaries, approach with caution; it may not be the authentic experience fans crave.
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Trump Before He's Pushed?
It’s no secret that the Trump campaign is in deep trouble. Reports that Trump is telling advisors ‘I don’t know what to do’ and is even considering pulling out are widespread. The world watches as the most famous, powerful person is slowly being crushed under the weight of his own mistakes, and every time he moves it gets worse. It’s the narcissist's nightmare.
But will he go? Well he might. Trump, a man devoid of empathy, only relates to one other man – Howard Hughes. The famous aviator who dazzled America before collapsing into a fever dream of bottled urine and locked hotel doors. As a younger man he would say that they were kindred spirits and that he would either end up as President or like Hughes - a germophobe muttering to himself in a locked luxury hotel room. And now, who knows? He could do both! Donald Trump treating the White House like Assange treated the Ecuadorian embassy. Joe Biden steps into an Oval Office where every surface is covered by antiseptic hand wipes and bottles of piss. Unlikely, but it would be a fitting end to the reality TV of our time.
But if Trump were to collapse and give up, what would this mean for the race for the White House? Firstly, who would step into the gulf? If it happens - the sooner, the better for changing direction, the more likely a strong candidate will step up. Could there be a convention? How would it work? The candidate to watch is Tucker Carlson. The Fox News host is handsome, aggressive, right-wing and a nationalist with the backing of the Murdoch machine. It would be an election campaign run night after night through a carefully choreographed TV studio, into the front rooms of countless right-leaning Americans. He would be unabridged, unchallenged and disciplined. If that were to happen he would be formidable. Place your bets now…
TikTok's Star-Making Influence is Altering Pop Music's DNA
In our Trends last week we talked about how TikTok is playing the same role in making people famous with Gen Z as tabloid newspapers did for Boomers, Gen X and even early millennials (with the added impetus of reality TV). This shift towards new mediums has also shifted the power balance in favour of celebrities and their management; the ability to achieve fame through channels over which they have near-total control solves a lot of PR headaches.
But TikTok’s influence extends beyond the fame game. Success on the platform has been cited as a factor in the lightning rise of artists such as Lizzo and particularly Lil Nas X and increasingly we’re witnessing artists create music which feels native to the platform. The latest example is Avenue Beat’s f**k 2020 which, in its musical style, social language and embrace of so many current memes, is a near-perfect Gen Z anthem and could be a blueprint for more future icons of the generation.
Punchdrunk x Pokemon Go: New Forms Will be Key to Arts Survival
Last week in The Stage our dear leader talked about how external communications will be vital for theatres to survive the tragic but entirely possible onset of an industry-wide nuclear winter, and said this about embracing new technology and platforms:
“Theatre productions native to digital platforms are still treated as a niche sub-genre somewhere between site-specific and multimedia. Creating theatre for new platforms, particularly virtual reality and augmented reality, is essential for building audiences and opening revenue streams. Comedy producers are making the biggest strides here and theatre should look to them for inspiration. The theatre experience also has to extend beyond the auditorium doors and be imbibed in every facet of a production.”
This week we saw immersive theatre titans Punchdrunk team up with Pokemon Go developer Niantic to develop new formats which combine augmented reality and immersive performance. It’s innovative, it’s ambitious, it’s headline-grabbing, and it has rammed home the inescapable fact that theatre practitioners, given the opportunities and resources, will hold up their end of any deal they’re offered. It’s high time the government did the same.
Without intervention we're going to see the arts sector become a corporate franchising exercise. The fact that the first post-COVID major music venue is under the Virgin Money banner is a harbinger.
Also on that note, The Stage announced today that it was beginning consultation on redundancies. It's an excellent newspaper run by fine people and a credit to the industry which has never been more evident than throughout the lockdown, when it has been one of theatre's greatest defenders in this country. We're proud subscribers and would urge any of our readers with an interest in theatre to join us.
The Race to Fix Animation
Last week we talked about the scramble for white celebrities to pre-emptively apologies for past racial misdemeanors with mixed degrees of contrition. A subgenre of this practice to emerge in the past seven days is for American animated shows and their casts to ostentatiously remove white actors who previously played characters of colour.
It started with an authentic gesture, Big Mouth star Jenny Slate stepping down as mixed race character MIssy, and snowballed into a series of ostentatious gestures by other animated shows and their casts. After years, even decades of criticism, The Simpsons and Family Guy - two of the three longest running comedy shows in US history, stood down white voice actors of characters including Cleveland and Apu.
Kristen Bell also stepped down as Molly in Central Park and Alison Brie, robbed of the opportunity to do the same by the recent season finale, expressed regret about voicing Diane Nguyen in Bojack Horseman.
Credit is due to Jenny Slate for having the bravery to buck the trend. It felt like a genuine reaction to the BLM revolution. The same cannot be said for The Simpsons and Family Guy, both of which have resisted pressure for years not to have white actors voice characters of colour and now, whatever their motivation, just look like they're jumping on the last bandwagon out of Saigon now that their time is up. They're done the right thing for the wrong reasons.
It's a positive trend which will hopefully lead to more diversity of ideas and equality of opportunity in the hugely lucrative animated comedy sector, but for fans of the medium, one thought remains: Christ knows how South Park will react to this...
No.10 Spinners Work Out that Honey is Deadlier than Salt
In yet another attempt for the Conservative Party to prove that they are systematically changing the British nation, rather than conducting a bunch of flash PR strategies, it was announced today that the lobby system of elite, establishment political journalists getting twice-daily contact with Number 10 is to be changed. In another surely misplaced case of ‘let’s mimic the American system, they seem to have got things running well over there’, there will now be a spokesperson who will address the assembled media.
Months ago, we wrote about how Cummings had tried to slice unfriendly publications away from government contact, but had only succeeded in making the ferociously competitive and often poisonous atmosphere between the countries top journalists suddenly transform into an ‘I, Spartacus moment’. We argued then that any fresh attack on press freedom would have to be better aimed and executed, and it has. This is subtler, requires patience but will do more long-term damage.
So, here are some more predictions: Week 1 – The spokesperson is announced and is praised for not pale, male and stale. Week 7 – further media passes are given out to ‘reflect the complexity of modern media’, which accidentally (and overwhelmingly) favour right wing blogs and outlets. Week 12 – After a misunderstanding, number 10 apologises for not calling questions to left wing outlets. Week 35 – Left-wing journalists attempt another Spartacus moment, but it’s too little too late.
We were all told Cummings was a genius - but I'm beginning to mistake him for nothing more than a cynic. Which is yet another prediction that will Borkowski believe will be borne out.
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