Borkowski Media Trends: James Bond, Drake & MORE
PLUS Bonnie Blue & Lily Phillips | Stormzy x McDonald's
Broccoli, Wilted
In an article earlier this week in The Telegraph, Stephen Armstrong outlined the problems currently facing the James Bond franchise – mired in a scrap between Eon, the production company, and Amazon, who acquired the property when it purchased MGM in 2022, it seemed unlikely that any resolution, or indeed a film, was on the horizon. So far off, in fact, was it deemed to be that Austrian property developer Josef Kleindienst filed an attempt to takeover Eon and Amazon’s rights to the franchise’s commercial trademark in the EU at the end of last month.
And yet, in a rather stunning volte face on Thursday, Amazon announced that Michael Wilson and Barbara Broccoli, the longtime guardians of the rights to the Bond franchise, were due to step back from the production of further films, ceding creative control to Amazon itself. James Bond is in their blood – Broccoli is the daughter of Cubby Broccoli, who bought the rights to Ian Fleming’s novels in 1961, while Wilson is Broccoli Snr’s stepson and a producer of the films since 1977. In December, an article in the Wall Street Journal claimed that Broccoli had referred to Amazon executives as “fucking idiots”, with the relationship having irretrievably broken down after one staff member at the streamer referred to Bond as “content.”
But, it now appears, “content” has won the day, with Amazon wresting control from Eon, and, by extension, the Broccoli family. This poses two questions. The first is exactly how much Broccoli and Wilson have been paid to go away, a number so presumably staggering that any conceivable estimate should immediately have three zeroes added to it and then doubled. The second is just how quickly the franchise will be run into the ground – and whether public affection for it can hold fast.
The widely accepted problem now faced by Marvel Studios, suffering the latest in their series of diminishing returns this week after the flop of the latest Captain America film, is that the superhero market has been irretrievably saturated by endless spin-offs and tie ins, leaving fans exhausted. Eon have long protected the exclusive theatrical rights and market of Bond and the issue of spin-offs, prequels and sequels, was exactly the bone of contention in the Broccoli-Amazon fight. Now, with Eon out of the way, Amazon have carte blanche to make exactly the same mistakes as their compatriots at Disney.
Bond is woven into the UK’s cultural fabric so tightly because of its careful stewardship and managed image. With the inevitable Young Bond and Blofeld: Origins spin offs presumably already in pre-production, the question is whether Amazon will be able to maintain that same level of protection – or if they even want to.
Will Drake’s Triple Threat pay off?
Our current cultural landscape is a minefield. Many celebrities are terrified of the fallout of cancel culture. Being caught up in the whirlwind of a social media storm can devastate one's health, reputation and livelihood.
However, for those celebrities who've built a robust fandom, you can argue there's no such thing as being cancelled. We've seen it in extreme cases: Russell Brand and his pivot into the wellness world, Donald Trump - the first US president to be convicted of felony crimes... and then there's Drake.
While his reputational issues have been far more trivial, a puerile schoolyard beef even, he has arguably faced public humiliation on the world stage at the hands of his antagonist. Kenrick Lamar’s "Not Like Us" clean sweep at the GRAMMYs (not to mention his failed attempt to sue UMG) followed by a victory lap during the Super Bowl Half Time felt bruising; for many, it would've provoked a prolonged hiatus.
However, music and fame in general is so fragmented in the modern era that Drake emerges from the wreckage of the Kendrick beef pretty much unscathed. One might argue, he's currently thriving: releasing a new album for Valentine's Day followed by the announcement of an unprecedented three-night headline takeover of Wireless this summer. His decision to lean into his RnB roots is clearly an attempt to move away from the corners of hip-hop - an attempt to put some terra firma between him and Kendrick. And with Apple Music announcing $ome $exy $ongs 4 U broke the record for first-day RnB streams; is Drake, instantly, back?
Perhaps Drake went into this beef with Kendrick with a contingency plan, or at least his team of 'Yes Men' have pulled something out of the bag. Because no one in their right mind would've advised Drake to engage with Kendrick the way he did - he's the superior artist, lyricist and songwriter and was destined to lose. But Drake has built such a loyal fanbase that no matter the fallout, his audience always craves more of his music. They aren't 'music fans', they're Drake fans, and it's unclear what Drake could do to jeopardise his fanbase.
The rapper withdraws a case accusing his label of artificially boosting the success of Not Like Us.
Craving attention, a bump in the road for Blue and Phillips
Adult content creator Bonnie Blue, known for her provocative content and controversial claims, has once again shocked the internet. Queen of rage bait, Blue rose to fame by targeting 18-year-olds at university freshers’ weeks, swapping sex for filmed content for her Only Fans platform. Fresh off the back of a wave of publicity generated by a recent stunt in which she claimed to have sex with 1057 men in 24 hours, Blue has once again shocked the internet with cryptic social media posts seeming to announce a pregnancy. Sharing images of unusual food cravings and referencing her past gang bang as providing a plethora of possible fathers.
A master of riling up the internet, Blue’s announcement that her child would have 1057 fathers led to her trending on X as people were quick to attack her callous attitude towards pregnancy. The surfeit of memes only heightened her fame. Blue later admitted to faking the announcement, claiming she was responding to rumours of her being pregnant. Many critics have slammed her for being insensitive to those struggling with fertility, accusing her of using a serious issue for publicity. Blue’s response has been to promise to use some of the proceeds generated from the publicity to pay for IVF for women or couples who reach out to her on Instagram.
Her admission of the hoax came only hours after another Only Fans model Lily Phillips, who had also confirmed a pregnancy this week via an image of her bump alongside 1-2 weeks along ClearBlue test, revealed that her image was part of a ‘role play’ for subscribers. Phillips who had previously gone viral for her emotional reaction after filming with over 100 men in a day, has been presented as a rival of Blue. Her pregnancy announcement just hours after speculation about Blue has fanned the flames.
Whilst Phillips’ stunt was arguably more obviously fake, backlash against both has been intense, with many arguing that such fabricated announcements trivialise real pregnancy struggles. Despite this criticism, both women were trending on X, with rumours of their alleged rivalry and rage-bait stunts further growing the smog cloud of fame that fuels their Only Fans success. Far from a bump in the road, it seems both women have laboured for fame and delivered.
No such thing as a free meal for McStormzy
If you’re going to risk being seen as a sellout in the age of the culture wars, make sure the price is right.
Stormzy must be doing a cost-benefit analysis this week after his limited edition McDonald’s meal faced significant criticism online. The allegation was hypocrisy, Stormzy having previously expressed support for Palestine, and McDonald’s currently battling a pro-Palestine boycott for its perceived support of the IDF.
To add further fuel to the fire the rapper was reported to have deleted a pro-Palestine social media post around the time of the McDonald’s meal launch. All of this was gleefully reported by the worldwide media and even inspired a critical poster campaign around London.
It’s a perfect illustration of the kind of black-and-white tribalism dogging our cultural landscape; in the minds of a significant proportion of the internet, McDonald’s as a brand is defined by its support for Israel (specifically the IDF) and Stormzy as a human being and recording artist is defined as pro-Palestine, and therefore, in the minds of these same people, never the twain shall meet.
There’s a valid argument that this is a case of merited disappointment in an artist whose career was partially built on certain values abandoning those values for a short-term commercial deal. But the brutal reality is that anyone in the public eye risks their every historic utterance being applied to every decision they make for the rest of their careers; and the media circles this amphitheatre like birds of prey ready to swoop on every carrion scrap of inauthenticity, inconsistency or hypocrisy.
You question how nobody advising Stormzy (or McDonald’s) seemingly understood enough about this ecosystem to see the current situation coming.
Meltwater data from the past week tells us that 92% of all opinionated media and social mentions of Stormzy x McDonald’s are negative: with criticism of McDonald’s focussed into an organised boycott, this is far from an example of ‘all publicity is good publicity’ and could affect the commercial bottom line of the deal.
Stormzy is learning that in today’s fame game there’s no such thing as a free lunch.