How studios paint the narrative.

in fake •  last year 

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Couple points:

ALL of the studios do this.

Keep in mind that these guys sink tens of millions of dollars into marketing just about any new series or movie that comes out (which, in some cases, get hundreds of millions of dollars in marketing budgets). A lot of that money goes to either paying influencers and/or giving influencers special access to junkets and premieres and stuff, either explicitly or implicitly in exchange for good reviews and recommendations.

Since social media buzz is a massive component of any show's performance, undoubtedly a lot of money also goes to sock puppets who exist to prop up supposedly grass-roots "support" and challenge critics.

Furthermore, each new film or series tends to get its own social accounts and websites/landing pages. See, for example, the IG page for Indiana Jones: https://www.instagram.com/indianajones/

Or... No Hard Feelings: https://www.instagram.com/nohardfeelingsmovie/

Or... The Creator:
https://www.instagram.com/creatorthefilm/

Or... Big Bang Theory:
https://www.instagram.com/bigbangtheory/

Most every new movie or show does this, but here's the thing... for these accounts to gain traction and have any chance of shaping the public narrative, they have to have a ton of followers, but almost nothing just organically gets hundreds of thousands or millions of followers without a long lead time and regular posts.

Sooooooooo... They buy 'em. Bots! Bots everywhere.

Point being, this is all a sham, but because the studios have armies of sock puppets and bots, they can create narratives on social media the same way they've always used the trades (Variety, Deadline, etc.) and celebrity gossip rags (Page Six, Vanity Fair, etc.) to control the narrative in print.

Whenever you see some film studio dismissing online critics as "toxic fandoms" or whatever, you should understand it as PR. Likewise, if you see random Twitter users praising something that's obvious shit, there's a non-zero probability that it's just a bot or a sockpuppet literally on the studios' payroll.

Read the comments on social media featuring new trailers or clips from TV or films.

A shocking number of them will be copypasta or mindlessly sycophantic praise. Whenever you see that, you should probably just assume it's fake.

Unfortunately, a lot of kneejerk "outrage" is equally fake, and yet another part of the strategy. Since outrage generates engagement and clicks, studios now routinely bait online communities in order to pick fights. It's crass and awful. But here we are.

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