Borkowski Weekly Media Trends 21-10-22
Lettuce Liz | Kanye gets Kanned | Corden Comeuppance
LETTUCE PARTY
It is a stark, harrowing and hilarious fact that one of the most successful manoeuvres of the Liz Truss era was a publicity stunt by the UK’s most proudly lowbrow tabloid newspaper, measuring the Prime Minister’s survival time against the shelf-life of a lettuce via live stream.
The Daily Star’s decision to physically manifest a quip from an Economist op-ed that became a meme about ‘Lettuce Liz’ gained chuckles from around the world, and the story kept rolling with daily updates such as giving the lettuce a bag of tofu after Suella Braverman’s unhinged pre-resignation rant.
When Truss did resign on Thursday lunchtime and the Lettuce ‘won’ the contest, tributes rang in from around the globe. Memes rained from the heavens:
In the same way as a Love Island winner would be fawned over by Boohoo and PrettyLittleThing, supermarket chains were clambering for a grip on the lettuce’s coat-tails in order to sell their own wares.
Daily Star spokespeople were asked for a play-by-play analysis as the world’s media either joined in on the joke, or wondered politely about the meaning of this strange ritual of British political sacrifice:
Such was the success of the Lettuce stunt it was even used as a propaganda tool in global affairs by Russia’s Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev:
In all truth the lettuce was not as politically damaging to Liz Truss as her party’s concerted efforts at defenestration, or her own incompetence, but it was brilliant publicity for the Daily Star.
Tabloid newspapers are designed to engage people with the news but with a bit of humour and the common touch. Too often in the UK this manifests as reactionary sleaze. This ultimately harmless and funny engagement with Meme culture will have done this underdog Red Top no harm at all. The challenge is if this relevance can sustain.
Kanye Gets Kanned
Balenciaga has severed ties with Kanye West following the uproar surrounding his ‘White Lives Matter’ stunt at Paris Fashion Week, and continual multiplying down on his nouveau-MAGA mantra of racial slurs and conspiracy theories ever since.
The rapper’s apparent targeting of Fox News viewers, conspiracy theorists and Trump supporters - perhaps a radicalised update on Michael Jordan’s ‘Republicans buy sneakers too’ philosophy- may win him a large new cult audience, but it appears to be alienating the more mainstream progressive elements of society on whose dime his fame and success has ultimately been built.
Perhaps part of his gambit is faith that people will separate the art from the artist and that his products - music, fashion et al- will continue to do numbers even if his personal philosophy does not sit as comfortably with his fandom as it once did. If it is, his 86-ing by Balenciaga is an indication that this gamble is misjudged and that the liberal mainstream is more than willing to alienate this once-powerful cultural figure.
Of course the silver lining could be that Ye’s new target audience of cranks and fascists reserve their most religious zeal for those they see as ‘victims of cancel culture’. Donald Trump’s many offenses in office culminating in his crimes on 6 January 2021 may have lost him all of his ‘moderate’ supporters, but it sure made the extremists love him even more. If Ye is to become a martyr to ‘cancel culture’, it will make him a mainstream pariah, but an idol to his new cult.
James Corden is a Hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny Cretin of a man
A viral Instagram post by restauranteur Keith McNally attacking James Corden, calling him a "tiny cretin of a man", has sparked a storm for the Late Late Night Show host. Corden is facing an eruption of abuse and a reputational nightmare, with millions queuing up to kick him whilst he's down after the restauranter claimed he was the "most abusive customer his business had served in 25 years."
McNally magnificently struck a nerve and lifted the lid on something thousands have held back for several years - James Corden's behaviour behind the cameras. Suppose you believe the countless anecdotes of catering horror stories where James Corden has shouted down at waiting and bar staff, publicly embarrassing anyone he deems beneath him (pretty much anyone taking his order). In that case, you'd have grounds to think he's rather unpleasant.
How fast brands have reacted to the outrage and jumping on the bandwagon has shifted this from several hundred anecdotes to a global news story. There was a brief period when every brand's social media channel under the sun jumped on Corden's pack to poke fun, creating content and memes that many millions were lapping up.
It was a nuclear explosion for Corden, but he kept silent in the blast zone, which helped limit the sheer impact of the disaster. And today, he broke his silence, saying that he hasn't done anything wrong, saying that everyone has blown this incident out of proportion. Whichever side of the fence you sit on, it's hard to argue with that. But, for someone who has as loud a personality as Corden, he tends to tread very carefully around public controversies, timing his responses well once the initial impact dies down and the sting isn't quite as potent. He's deferred the meat of his response for Monday, but with the harder political news driving this story out of the picture, he's managed to avoid the brunt of the public's outcry.