I was fascinated throughout the entire first season of “Trigger Warning with Killer Mike” on Netflix, but I didn’t expect to find a case study on branding and community marketing in the “White Gang Privilege” episode. Rapper and activist Killer Mike starts every episode with a relatively straightforward thesis – in this case, why can a white “gang” like the Hell’s Angels sell merchandise (a stream of revenue that has helped them become more legitimate) and black “gangs” can’t – then does a real-world test. There are a lot of fascinating racial politics at play, and I urge you to go watch the entire series since it dives into those divides from many angles. But here I’m going to look at the launch of Crip-a-Cola and Blood Pop as branding experiments, taking the facts presented in the episode at face value and ignoring any other assumptions or expectations I may have. With that in mind, this is a perfect example of how story-driven, preferably in-person marketing is especially important when brand recognition is high, yet reputation is low.
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When thinking about the themes of the films of 2018, part of me thought it was positivity, but when I look at my list, that’s clearly not the case. Two of the best superhero movies ever came out, hopefully signaling that genre has reached a more artistic plateau and it’s not just a fluke. There was a sudden resurgence of skateboarding. It was a GREAT year for documentaries, reflecting on powerful life stories with a realization of dreams or camaraderie in there somewhere. But inevitably my final theses were driven by the real-world context into which these movies were released.
First, I noticed a lot of stories celebrating outsiders who are ok with being outsiders, sometimes even proud. Occasionally this required fighting against oppression, occasionally it was just remaining isolated. We were finally treated to an abundance of characters who saw being unlike everyone else as a good thing. We should always celebrate that in ways both large and small, in fiction and nonfiction, on-screen and off. The second and most prominent theme of my personal list is that even when things are terrible, they can still be funny. I noticed a lot of great dark, weird comedies, which always strike a chord with me but may be even more effective now as reminders that we need to laugh at something in even the worst circumstances. Maybe reality has gotten so dark that anything is a pleasant break? it’s all absurd anyways, and any gentle reminder of that is nice. These thoughts are not deep revelations about film, but these movies are reminders it can be an escape or it can remind us all is not lost, even when showing us how it can be. It’s not an excuse to ignore what’s around us, but it can occasionally give us a bit more optimism. Enjoy my top thirteen (plus a bunch of honorable mentions) and let me know your thoughts! We’re right in the middle of my favorite season: Awards Season! A busy month of ceremonies kicks off on Sunday with the most fun and unpredictable show, the Golden Globes. I say it every year, but always feel the need to reiterate that all artistic awards are meaningless as any actual judge of quality, and that’s even more accurate for these. They are however, a great way to talk about film & television, and typically a pretty entertaining show. I’m sure that will continue in 2019 with a ceremony hosted by Andy Samberg and Sandra Oh, a very interesting and seemingly random combination of two people I like. They also said they hope to avoid politics for the night, which would be a pleasant surprise.
One thing (or rather 18) I’m not sure of, is who the winners will be. Film awards are becoming increasingly difficult to predict in general as social media reaction is louder and more important than ever and the Hollywood Foreign Press appears to be trying to improve their reputation with recent wins. The Golden Globes sometimes seem really predictable (big stars! big musicals!) until they’re not (Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Nocturnal Animals?), so even if there’s reasoning here it could all go completely out the window when dealing with the whims of a small, random group of foreign journalists that are particularly susceptible to marketing and meet & greets with celebrities. The TV awards at the Golden Globes feel like a huge afterthought for them and the audience, although they are ahead of the curve (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) as much as they are too eager to crown something new (Mozart in the Jungle). I do not mean to take away from any winners, it’s just all very confounding. The Golden Globes do still manage to put out a good list of nominees, there are only a couple true headscratchers. With that, onto my totally right, maybe wrong, subjective, well-reasoned, unbiased opinion on who will (and should) win. |
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