Borkowski Weekly Media Trends of the Year (Part 2.)
Big Tech's Big Reckoning? | Desperate Influencers | Culture's 'Wokey Races'
Big Tech’s Big Reckoning
TikTok power continues to grow
In 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, TikTok boomed, and while some thought the app would die when the world reopened, it has only got stronger.
This year we saw a huge increase in Tiktok’s influence, not just on global headlines, but on a whole generation’s attitudes towards global events. From its coverage of the Jonny Depp v Amber Heard trial to viral clips unleashing outrage on brands like Disney - after an employee gatecrashed a proposal- TikTok is now firmly established as a powerful tool of influence.
With over a billion active users (more than Twitter) and a growing user age-range, in 2023 TikTok will be an vital component of every comms arsenal.
Elon Musk and Twitter.
It's been a whirlwind year for Twitter. Way back in spring it was announced that Elon Musk had acquired 9% of the company, and soon after he announced his intention to buy the whole thing.
What followed was an explosive battle - on Twitter- about whether the company was lying about the number of bots on the platform, as Elon threatened to pull his offer. After several setbacks, Elon was forced to follow through on buying the company.
Since his takeover, it hasn't been smooth sailing, with piles of negative headlines around, to name just a few, the decision to make people pay for a ‘blue tick’, going to war with Apple, sacking half the company in the first week, allowing Trump back on the platform, and now calling out the former management for suppressing and censoring media stories. Twitter’s stock, Musk's already turbulent reputation, and even his vast wealth, have all taken flack. As we look ahead to 2023, we can be certain the world's…second…richest man will be causing plenty more controversy in his scorched-earth quest to mould Twitter in his own image.
Meta is in trouble
The world's biggest social media company has also had a turbulent year. Meta has slashed staff, and user growth went backwards. The company who been ripped apart for its ambitious and expensive metaverse gambit, with it's primitive 'Horizon Worlds' showcased to the public in various guises despite clearly not being ready for consumer use. As Meta’s stock price plummets, pressure is on Zuckerberg to turn around its fortunes next year, otherwise the pressure to dump his metaverse project - a humiliating failure- may become too big to ignore.
Meta's Ad Revenue has also fallen off a cliff due to Apple restricting data access; a good thing for privacy campaigners, but Meta relied on that data to make money. Expect the war between Cook and Zuck to heat up in 2023…
Desperate Influencers
2022 has seen many rises and a few memorable falls, and it can be tempting to assume that the surging number of claims to fame can be blamed on the growing popularity of TikTok alone. Looking back at this year, influencers who have sprung into public consciousness have hustled hard to get where they are, choosing the less well-trodden paths to achieve mainstream fame, and to cling onto it.
The year began with a striking morality tale worth of Tolstoy’s How Much Land Does a Man Require, or even Icarus, a TikToker who achieved fame and fortune for selling her farts, was hospitalised from over-exertion. Her pursuit of fame nearly cost her not just her dignity, but her health and there in lies a (hilarious) lesson for every other wannabe influencer.
As for this year’s success stories; fans of the niche hobby of trainspotting rejoiced as Francis Bourgeois, a geeky TikTok sensation, had become the face of a Gucci campaign. Francis built his brand as a loveable, nerdy, fan of trains who travels to stations across the country with hopes of spotting a rare model. With his fame expanding, he has been seen trainspotting with Joe Jonas and an ex-Love Island contestant, showing influencers everywhere that mainstream success and celebrity social climbing can still look humble and organic.
From one transportation-inspired niche to another, this year the British public have witnessed another viral moment, one so specific, that it seems odd to recall it now: the Big Jet TV. Back in February, when most of us were barricaded at home, praying for our rattling windows to stay in their frames as storm Eunice hit the country, this aviation YouTube channel became a source of unlikely entertainment. Its admittedly dry content comprised of footage of big planes shakily touching down at Heathrow airport, with the brilliant commentary by presenter Jerry Dyer. Yet again, a mix of the right time, the right delivery and seemingly random niche content has produced a viral moment – and a distinctly British one at that.
Finally, across the pond, another influencer emerged triumphant from the ruins of one of Ye’s PR relationships. Julia Fox, known as an actress to most only from her role in Uncut Gems (‘Unca Jams’ as she calls it), ends her year as a solid B-list celebrity while her ex finally seems to be cancelled for good (or is he?). The curious case, if not the genius, of Julia Fox was in her relentless pursuit of what tends to be short-lived media interest around PR girlfriends. After the unavoidable breakup, Fox has been organising planned paparazzi photoshoots of risqué outfits which became so viral, Kim Kardashian’s recent looks have been dubbed ‘Julia Fox-like’. Fox went onto working with fashion brands and then creating a podcast, an admirable trajectory for someone who spent the first six months of the year being a ridiculed meme. Not everyone could win the public over after a start like this, and Julia’s unfaltering authenticity and determination transformed her from the random arm candy figure with a taste for bizarre make up to a Gen Z icon, bringing back the surprisingly self-aware uncanny of the old-school Paris Hilton kind. The influencers have struck a weird chord or two this year, and perhaps it is something we will be seeing more of in 2023. Call it desperate, we call it creative.
Culture’s ‘Wokey Races’
It is nothing new for marketing teams to be up all night, brainstorming new ways to #StayWoke. It is also nothing new for all their efforts to backfire. From Kendal Jenner’s facepalmingly-misjudged Pepsi-Police ad of 2017, Dolce and Gabana’s chopstick fiasco of 2018 and M&S’s pride-themed BLT of 2019, companies have long strived to appear progressive, desperate to add some colour to their pale and stale personas, only for it to do the complete reverse. However, in 2022, it appears as though record numbers of participants entered the ‘Wokey Races’. And with more participants inevitably comes more losers…
Of course, the biggest losers of the year are of course those claimed they’d be using their first-class flights to Qatar to espouse human rights from the skies (in between their sips of Dom and Caviar). David Beckham, Gary Neville, Robbie Williams, the England Team. All planned to use their attendance at the World Cup to platform the plight of LGBT people, workers and women. Instead, their lack of virtues only served to signal the addition of some extra zeros in their bank accounts.
FIFA aside, there were plenty of other major trip ups this year. Edward Enninful, the fashion industry darling and editor-in-chief of British Vogue, placed Timothee Chalamet on the cover, a historic first for the British edition. However, you’d almost be forgiven for thinking it was sarcasm, when Enniful went on to frame Chalamet’s cover as a crucial example of representation, the stuff of ‘fantasy’. Safe to say that Twitter’s ever-hungry social justice warriors weren’t quite so easily fooled.
That same month, the other side of Twitter was losing its mind over the inclusion of black elves in Amazon’s Tolkien blockbuster Rings of Power, unbothered by the fact that mythological creatures don’t necessarily have a ‘race’, and even less bothered about what have long been thought to be racist tropes in the source material. Thomas the Tank engine then announced their effort to champion neurodiversity by introducing an autistic character. And both Peppa Pig and The Simpsons added some colour to their monotone pink and yellow, by including polar bear mums and a girlfriend for Lisa. Admittedly, none of these were particular failures – more reliable woke-signalling publicity stunts to grapple at relevance, placing them solidly in the middle of the pack.
No, the big Hollywood woke-splosion of the year has to go to Bros. In what appeared to be a confirmation of the ‘go woke, go broke’ mantra, Universal’s same-sex rom-com only sold $4.8 million in tickets on its opening weekend. It’s still up for debate whether this was because of some public reaction against Never-Never Land’s virtue-signalling, or just a reflection of bad casting, worse marketing and terrible reviews. Either way, it would be a month before Bros evenly nearly recouped its budget.
So, those are the losers and middlings of the race. Were there any winners?
If early reviews (and Twitter trends) are anything to go by, The White Lotus’ second season was a masterclass in how to weave woke with wonder. Of course, a storyline that introduced Jennifer Coolidge to a gaggle of gays, guns and Grey Goose was always going to be a hit. But the show’s lesbian storylines and depiction of female desire have also been near universally praised by both extremes of Twitter.
So ‘go woke, go broke’ isn’t quite the lesson. Instead, hopefully the close of 2022 is also the end of media execs thinking that, as Forbes puts it, “diversity… can be the whole pitch”.