Borkowski Media Trends: Guardian leads X-odus | Lineker leaves BBC & MORE
PLUS: Wicked mistake
X-odus
Most serious commentators have concluded that Elon Musk’s X (nee Twitter) became such an echo chamber for Trump support that its influence on the result of the US presidential election was negligible.
However, Musk’s man won, and he must have hoped that being able to claim a hand in the victory would have had positive commercial consequences for his beleaguered social media platform.
Instead, Trump’s election appears to have compounded Musk and X’s problems, sparking an exodus from the platform lead by the Guardian who announced that they would no longer be posting on X in a leader which went around the world.
Consumers followed suit, with rival platform Bluesky social adding a reported million users, and Meta’s X rip-off Threads continuing its steady growth, passing $275m users.
This phenomenon is mostly an escalation of the culture wars. As society polarises, tribal divisions are exaggerated on social media and battle lines are drawn on every imaginable issue. Musk has long claimed X as an alt- and far-right stronghold. Trump’s victory has persuaded many of liberal-progressive persuasion that any attempt at insurrection has failed and resistance is now futile. And so they’ve fled in their millions to cosier echo chambers.
But that’s not the whole story. Even the most staunchly apolitical of X users must have noticed that Musk’s scything cuts to the platform and its staff, and desperate attempts to monetise every function, have resulted in a loss of functionality.
Twitter used to be the best place on the internet to watch news break, or take a snapshot of a debate on any issue, but now even the most cursory search is flooded with crypto adverts and Trumpist dogma to the point that it’s impossible to hone in on a single topic or event.
This may partly explain the fact that it’s not just ‘liberal’ platforms benefitting from X’s struggles. Driven by the infamous showman himself, Trump Media’s Truth Social was reported in (fittingly) the Guardian last month to have overtaken X’s market cap. The irony of this whole charade is that in betting on Trump, Musk hasn’t just driven away his culture war enemies, but potentially lined his new master’s pockets. At least he has another job to keep him busy…
Lineker leaves the BBC
When it comes to sports punditry in the modern era, personality is king. If you want high-level analysis, you can subscribe to The Athletic or find a corner of YouTube where you'll find a 20-minute video on an esoteric tactical quirk making waves in the Australian football league. With this in mind, Gary Lineker’s decision to step down from Match of the Day is undoubtedly a well-timed exit. While few can do what Lineker does, we're seeing a seismic shift in the punditry landscape. Lineker has recently spoken on record that MOTD is adopting a "slightly different" approach, and to continue for another 12 months "would be a bit weird".
We can ascertain the BBC is trying to keep up with the Paramounts and Skys where big personalities riff on air, with hot takes, jibes and gags aplenty. What makes this such a successful formula is the shareable moments plastered across social media that broadcasters are cashing in on. Whether that's ad revenue on social media platforms or more eyeballs from a wider cross-section of viewers this shift from analysis to entertainment offers the chance for everyone to watch.
Currently, MOTD's rigid format makes it harder to compete with the heavyweights thriving in this new landscape (best example: Parmount's Micah Richards, Thierry Henry and Jamie Carragher 'bantering' with presenter Kate Abdo). It's now all about creating a vibe, which the BBC is really lacking. It's not helped by Lineker’s deeper tensions with the BBC. Negative publicity around political controversies and Lineker's high salary have caused a bit of a stink for all involved. His exit allows the network to redirect those funds toward reinventing the show with a presenter better suited to this evolving format.
The frontrunners to replace Lineker: Alex Scott and Mark Chapman, each bring something to the table. But the heftier challenge will be building a cast around the ultimate choice. Two might've been three had the Jermaine Jenas experiment failed before it picked up momentum. While the BBC was prepping him with a high-profile The One Show slot, his surprise exit was a bit of a relief following many cringey social media clips that been lingering online for an extended period.
The BBC will want to handle this transition carefully; a poor appointment could jeopardise MOTD’s devoted audience. While the decision has come as no major surprise, Lineker has been part of a successful and beloved institution - fiddling with the formula could spell trouble to a broadcaster under increasing pressure to make every penny count.
A Wicked error
Universal’s Wicked movie collaboration with toy manufacturer Mattel took an unexpected X-rated turn. As part of the promotional campaign for the upcoming film, Mattel released dolls modelled after the main character. Users quickly discovered however, that the URL printed on the packaging, directed users to an adult website rather than the intended official website.
In a marketing campaign for Wicked - the family-friendly musical based on The Wizard of Oz - this error is, at face-value, one of their worst-case scenarios and a significant PR blunder. All is not lost however, as this initial disaster has spurned some surprising outcomes.
For the adult website the error was an unmitigated triumph; it experienced an unprecedented surge in traffic, reportedly receiving millions of clicks—the most it has garnered in over a decade. The mislabelled dolls have created a success story for Wicked Pictures, which turned this unexpected attention into a win for its struggling platform. Whilst it remains to be seen how many of these clicks actually came from potential viewers (and not traumatised children,) the increase in earned media coverage has helped boost the website’s publicity.
The mishap has also become a humorous talking point across social media. Tweets, memes, and viral discussions have brought the Wicked movie into the limelight in ways traditional marketing rarely achieves. While the association with a pornographic site is far from ideal, the widespread coverage has inadvertently raised awareness of the film. The situation has been widely perceived as an honest mistake, which softened its impact on the movie’s reputation.
Following the discovery, the dolls were recalled in the U.S. Major retailers—including Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s—quickly removed the products from their online stores. According to The Independent, “The dolls with the misprinted labels, originally priced between $20 (£15) and $40 (£31), were seen on sale on eBay for prices between $40 and $2,100 (£1,637).” This unintentional exclusivity has created additional hype, further boosting public awareness of the film.
The Wicked doll crisis shows how unpredictable the outcomes of crisis situations can be. Whilst the initial mistake linked a children’s product to inappropriate content, the humour and viral nature of the incident have drawn attention to the movie from an entirely new demographic. The incident has certainly left a mark, making Wicked a topic of conversation far beyond its target family audience.