Borkowski Weekly Media Trends 18-06-21
Lin-Manuel Miranda's casting problems | Victoria's Secret Comeback | GB News launch
Welcome back to Borkowski trends!
Over on his side of the blog, you can find Mark talking about Ronaldo’s drink water moment. He writes,
With 300 million followers, Ronaldo and people like him eclipse the sporting bodies in terms of power and visibility. Whereas the sport used to give a platform to the star, it now seems almost the opposite is true… Everything must now be reconsidered.
Read more here.
And in other trends…
Lin-Manuel Miranda under fire for casting
There has been substantial criticism aimed at Lin-Manuel Miranda this week for the lack of Afro-Latino actors in lead roles for In The Heights, the new film-musical of Miranda’s 2005 stage show of the same name.
In The Heights fell short of box office expectations, even after proving a hit with critics - garnering positive reviews. Despite the distributor Warner Bros spending millions on promoting the film, it struggled to convert the hype surrounding it into commercial success.
Swathes of criticism followed a lacklustre $11m opening weekend on social media with The Root’s Felice Leon raising that most of In The Heights principal actors “were light-skinned or white-passing Latinx people”, grilling the movie’s director Jon M. Chu on the lack of Black Latinx people represented in the film.
Later Lin-Manuel Miranda publicly apologised, acknowledging the criticisms at the heart of the debate, reiterating that he had heard the hurt and frustration and that he is learning from the feedback. It was a well-received apology, supported by the likes of Rita Moreno who hinted at the tightrope walk one must navigate in today’s tense political climate - particularly on social media.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is riding off the positive image created by Hamilton, universally adored by fans and the industry. Whilst this is a major misstep, he has indicated that he has learnt from this experience. It will be interesting how In The Heights bounces back, with Variety indicating that it could grow to become a sleeper hit. However, this social media controversy may have thwarted its potential. Although, remind me… what’s that adage about publicity?
Victoria’s Secret stages a brand turn-around
Victoria’s Secret have been pretty quiet recently. It is understandable, given its spectacular fall from grace in 2019. A recap: The underwear brand, famous for its annual Victoria Secret Fashion Show that for years saw the world’s top models transformed into Victoria’s Secret Angels (complete with stilettos and bespoke angel wings), had long been profiting from unrealistic beauty standards. Essentially, selling the notion that women should look a certain, almost completely unachievable, way, and that wearing VS underwear might help them get there. After years of dominance, consumers and commentators, buoyed by #MeToo and mounting calls for diversity and inclusion, finally ‘cancelled’ the brand – literally and figuratively - arguing that it set a toxic example to young girls. Meanwhile, whilst VS blindly continued peddling its ultra-flashy, ultra-feminine underwear, a host of modern underwear brands (see Savage x Fenty, Aerie) had swooped in and won over consumers. The 2019 Victoria Secret Fashion Show was cancelled, and it was difficult to see how the brand would make a comeback.
Two years later and they’ve announced their plan of action. A simple body positive campaign wouldn’t do – that’s old hat by now. Instead, they’ve recruited seven new ambassadors (including journalist and mental health campaigner Amanda de Cadenet, model and refugee Adut Akech, trans activist Valentina Sampaio, professional football player and LGBTQ+ activist Megan Rapinoe) to ‘create revolutionary product collections’ and ‘compelling and inspiring content’, plus new staff training programs and charitable projects. It’s a big (and costly) move, but it had to be. As The New York Times puts it, VS is attempting ‘one of the most extreme brand turnarounds in recent memory’.
Will it work? Certainly not fully. Beyond the public’s deep lack of trust in the VS, new competitors and changing social attitudes mean there is less demand now for lingerie from the self-proclaimed ‘most glamorous brand in the world’. This might be just enough effort for customers who still want the products to feel okay about shopping there again, but that’s if they manage to pull the overhaul off smoothly. Watch this space…
GB News launches to partisan fanfare
GB News launched this week with a rousing polemic from Andrew Neil outlining what the channel will—and will not—be. Despite a host of technical issues, the core message came through loud and clear (though at varying audio levels): we are a channel for those who think that the news is too snooty, liberal, and London-centric, and we will give a voice to those who have been made to feel that their opinions aren’t valid.
The night began by giving a voice to famously voiceless figures like Nigel Farage, Lords Sugar & Sumption, Rishi Sunak and the beautifully-haired but very serious geographer Neil Oliver. But despite impressive viewing figures on the opening night, there has been some concern about whether this central message risks becoming repetitive. Particularly if they are to avoid being the mirror-image of the snowflake generation they complain about, the channel will have to show they have something more to hang their hat on than grievance.
Of course, the energies they are playing with our dangerous, and some Twitter users from the middle of the country are already rage-tweeting about the ‘snootiness’ and ‘condescension’ of figures like Tom Harwood, not to mention less savoury jibes about Dan Wootton, who is openly gay. Promoting free debate is one thing—stoking a range of frustrations and prejudices to profit by it is another, and too often freedom of speech is often the auspice under which opinions which are correctly repressed come out of the woodwork.
Given these daunting challenges, this smiling, multi-ethnic brigade’s task feels positively quixotic. Only time will tell whether they are modern champions of the repressed and underserved or profiteers from the culture wars. When we first heard about the GB News project, Mark asked the question of whether GB News would be able to exploit the same kind of polarisation that we see in the US media landscape. I leave you with his words:
If GB News is going to be as potent and divisive a force as Fox News has been, its presenters will not only have to exploit that minority’s feeling of alienation, but actively stoke it…. Andrew Neil is… perfectly capable of using his ample powers for good as well as evil; time will tell whether he succumbs to a temptation to which many before him have fallen.
Watch this space.