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Netflix goes the cheap route to appease the trans cause du jour, which may cost them.

by: Dabitch, Jul 26 2020 - 11:41pm
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By Dabitch on July 26, 2020 - 23:41

As Kidsleepy noted in an earlier article headlined Wokevertising for fun and profit, advertising has a way of jumping onto the cause du jour head first when it's trendy, but forgetting the issue as soon as a new shiny toy comes along. Netflix's current fascination with transgender issues is an example of exactly this. Today, Netflix invited a trans person to head up the Social media account for them, and they did so by "stanning" Netflix shows that have transgender characters, such as the Babysitters club. 

In the very first tweet Rose Dommu introduces themselves and links to their own Twitter handle, where you can find tweets like this one, and a slight obsession with JK Rowling. (archive)

Now, why would a company hand over their PR channel to someone whose own twitter is an edgy mess of sex-jokes, porn, stalking JK Rowling, and gleefully sexualizing teenage boys? That seems pretty risky, to allow such a risque person to run a social media account with millions of followers, since the first tweet is introducing this person's own Twitter handle, so the audience can see the above content.
 

The short answer is money. The long answer is that companies who want to stand out in a world where consumers are very vocal about social justice causes dear to their heart, displaying progressive values is a cheap branding tool. And by cheap I mean all the brand needs to do is let someone take over their twitter account, and that's enough to align themselves with the most recent cause. All board members may still be white men, but if the Twitter account is run by a one-armed unicorn, they score their woke-points. In a capitalist world, corporations want to generate money for their stockholders, which makes them naturally gravitate toward the low cost but high attention causevertising of "taking a stand" that can generate tons of free PR and grab social media eyeballs. 

It's easier and much cheaper to demand your employees click through a diversity and unconscious bias training website once a year than to set aside money for higher starting salaries, or junior training, which would go a long way in rectifying the diversity problem as the potential employee pool that could afford to take the job would be greater. It's cheaper for a company to send some C-level employees to a bunch of seminars about women in advertising than it is to set aside money for a daycare service and longer parental leave which would likely keep more women in advertising. It's really cheap to change your company logo to a rainbow flag on all social media, and companies didn't object to hiring openly gay people as their salaries are just the same as straight people's.

Sometimes appeasing the social justice audience with a logo change or Instagram post works to keep the crowd at bay. But not always. People are wising up to this being nothing but cheap actions. All talk and no walk. A lot of companies that showed support for BLM on social media were quickly reminded that their boards and c-suite were all white men. And in the case of this series of tweets, the responses show that the audience isn't receptive to regressive sex stereotypes enforced on kids. Particularly not a child who is in a hospital where his biology is a necessary bit of data when diagnosing what his issue may be and how to treat it. Here are some of the replies to this tweet;  

Some may wonder why the T has become such a big issue it supersedes the rest of the LGB, but again this is about money. Once gay marriage was deemed legal by the supreme court of the United States, and the same in the UK, LGB charities needed another thing to campaign for or they'd lose their donation money. If everyone is gay-friendly now, there is no need for a gay charity. Add to this that drugs like gonadotropin-releasing hormones (GnRH) agonists have lost its original patient market in many European countries, due to severe side-effects, and they're seeking a new market of lifelong users and you have the perfect storm. Originally for prostate cancer sufferers, then prescribed short-term for women like myself who suffered from endometriosis, they're now prescribed to children as "puberty blockers", with unknown future effects on developing brains. There is big money in pharma, big enough to nudge the programming of a streaming channel to expand the market. 

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Netflix is shit's picture

I don't know what is worse. The script. The idea of the script. Or the wooden acting in that scene where a brat corrects a medical Doctor and a registered nurse. So many levels of cringe.

Lennart's picture

probably this article? I mean, you kind of have to love these dishonest reactionaries lol

fairuse's picture

I am not going on a rant. That said, I avoid getting into a message war on trans, woke, BLM, and Marx.
After reading Kidsleepy's essay I thought, wow, people have no idea of the puppet strings. Big money finance of "trained marxists" behind the veil are sending protesters out as disposable fodder. New Word: "Black, Inc." by @ Moe Factz.

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Dabitch's picture

I'm always surprised when young people in advertising fail to understand that in the end it's all about marketing. The end goal is profit not progress. You can dress it up however you want, it's still just a cynical ploy to shill.

The Wicked Witch of the SE's picture

Before talking about Marx, maybe you should spend two seconds reading some of it. That said: It's entire point is MATERIALISM and NOT IDEALISM which is what transgender claptrap is. BLM is a liberal IDPOL organization that wouldn't know a Marxist test if someone slapped them with it--zero class analysis which is antithetical to class SOLIDARITY. Like Trans identities, just because someone in BLM claims to be "Marxist" doesn't make it any more factually correct than a T claiming to be a woman while being male. Hope that helps.

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