By JÖRG WOLLSCHLÄGER | The entertainment industry is increasingly having to pay expensive educational money for the propagation of woker phraseologies. In 2019, Gilette and its parent company Procter & Gambler alienated their own customers with an activist advertisement about „toxic masculinity“ and lost the incredible sum of $8 billion [link]. Since 2016 at the latest, there has been an intensifying conflict between the activist left, which wants to politicise all content, and the fed-up viewers, who react by refusing to consume. In this way, they are putting increasing pressure on the financially strong corporations.
Left-wing journalists called their opponents „racists, homophobes, hypocrites, sexists and misogynists“ in Gamergate and Comicsgate, triggering strong reactions and a culture war [link, link]. This morally dressed-up power struggle is about cultural interpretative sovereignty over entertainment programmes.
Huge revenue losses for Netflix
Netflix lost over 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter of 2022, and even expects to lose another 2 million paying customers in the second quarter. In addition, the streaming service lost 700,000 subscribers due to its decision to leave the Russian market. Shares fell from $700 to just $190. Actually, the 2021 covid restrictions and lockdowns should have triggered gold rush sentiment, yet the provider is losing customers in droves. In fact, the decline in sales is due to content! An internal company statement [link] provides information on this.
Netflix pulls emergency brake
„Depending on your role, you may have to work on titles that you find harmful,“ the notice continues. „If you would find it difficult to support our breadth of content, Netflix may not be the best place for you.“
Netflix Jobs [link]
Elon Musk spoke of a woke virus that defines cultural production at Netflix, that is, an obsession with sexual, ethnic and other minorities [link]. In the future, it will no longer be girls with degrees in gender studies who decide what kind of programme viewers get to watch. Those who don’t like it can leave. That’s the gist of a memo that caused a stir at the Los Gatos, California-based company [link, link]. Background: Last year there had been protests by woke employees because of the show „The Closer“ by Dave Chappelle, who was accused of being insensitive to transgender issues [link].
Disney loses $50m
While Netflix seems to be adaptive, Disney is less responsive. In the first quarter of 2022, the Burbank, California-based media company is also leading huge losses. The 8.5% plunge in shares [link] coincided with Disney’s culture war over LGBT education materials and parental say-so rights in Florida’s schools. Activist employees and woke media had urged the entertainment company to stand up to Florida’s conservative governor de Santis, CEO Bob Chapek raised the prospect of no longer donating to Florida Republicans [link]. In response, Disney lost legal privileges, namely self-governance over the Disney theme park, which had previously been an autonomous administrative district [link]. Disney Pixar’s film „Lightyear“ flopped at the box office. The spin-off story (spin-off) of the Toy Story franchise, a children’s film that is, scared off parents with a lesbian love story [link].
CNN pays tribute to bisexuality
Feminist J.K. Rowling had fallen out of favour with trans activists for daring to emphasise the bisexuality of humans. Rowling is now allowed to help produce a new Harry Potter series for HBO Max [link]. How the majority of consumers will react to the various adaptations of the Celtic-Germanic lore of Lord of The Rings in the new Amazon series remains to be seen [link].
