Let’s Burst That Bubble

Let's Burst that Bubble

The Atlantic has never been one of my favorite magazines, especially as they leaned hard into COVID panic porn, as this fabulous piece from Commentary's Christine Rosen astutely points out. However, they do have some solid writers, including Derek Thompson and Caitlin Flanagan, and this piece from Yair Rosenberg is a great one and kicks off this week's newsletter.

Rosenberg's central thesis is a disconnect between what critics love and what audiences enjoy. He offers a few theories for this, including critics living in an unrepresented bubble to losing sight of the audience's experience. All of which are entirely credible, but I think this applies not only to critics but content marketers as well. Just think about it. Most of the folks who produce the marketing we see for content, in particular, live on one of the coasts, which is not always representative of your actual audience. 

Additionally, most marketers live and die by Twitter love and hate. Take, for example, this new ad from Apple TV+. It is a great ad, and it has over 4 million hits on Youtube in just over four days of release, but how many know who Jon Hamm is? He spent years on a cable show which averaged about 2 million viewers, in 2015, BEFORE Netflix. Yet, it has been hailed as a hit show, hence the Apple TV+ featuring Jon Hamm. Herein lies the problem, the disconnect between those who market the content and those who watch it has only widened over the years (See Yellowstone vs. Succession for a more modern example.) I have been a part of many meetings where the discussion centered on how best to sell to the "middle of the country" with the assumption that it must be dumbed down to work. My mantra has always been that if you think your audience is dumb, your creative will be dumb. Of course, this has only gotten worse throughout the last few years as polarization has only increased. 

I recently started reading Kevin Goetz's new book, Audience-ology, a fascinating look at the movie screening process before a film releases and how the audiences shape the final product. I wonder how much more difficult his job has become now that agreeing on what entertains us becomes as political as what side of the "mask" debate you're on. Take this recent NY Times Op-Ed, which chatted with some independent voters. If your only source of news was political Twitter and the LA or NY Times, you'd be shocked by some of the issues raised by the voters. And therein lies the core issue, most marketers don't know or understand their audience because their surroundings immediately color their perspective. Yes, this is, in some ways, wholly natural, but to successfully market the next four-quadrant movie, you need to, at least, recognize that perspective.

Now, as regular readers of this newsletter know, I'm not one to throw out a significant problem without addressing some way to fix it. So what's the solution? First, marketers need to start stepping out of their comfort zones. In LA, for instance, that means spending more time in places like Torrance, not just the "West Side." You can learn a lot from just spending time in a grocery store or even a movie theater. It also means searching out more information like that Times article that breaks the broad-brush characterizations that one often finds in the media. Lastly, and probably, most importantly, a little more humility might do some good. Suppose any of us do venture outside of the comfort zone of the Oaks (Sherman or Thousand). In that case, we can't do it from a sociological perspective as the higher species checking out the lower lifeforms. We must see it as an exercise to understand better human decision-making and understand that what we like might not apply outside of our immediate sphere. It cannot be Know Thy Audience that shops at Whole Food, but it must be Know Thy Audience Who Wants to be Entertained.

A Prime Miss

My wife and I recently sat down to watch Amazon Prime's latest attempt at Oscar Gold, Aaron Sorkin's Being the Ricardos. I have to admit I was reasonably excited about this one. Tim had raved about (and he doesn't often do that), and my wife, who has wildly differing film tastes from mine, wanted to see it. That, combined with its Oscar buzz, made it a win-win. I fully admit I was somewhat enjoying it, although Nicole Kidman's look was slightly off-putting, and then my wife asked the fateful question, "How old are they supposed to be?" She made an obvious point and one I'm sure many folks who've seen the movie have also made. It took me right out of the film. In 1952, Lucy was supposed to be 41, and Nicole Kidman appeared to be around that age. However, Desi is supposed to be 35! And there is no way Javier Bardem is pulling that off. 

Now, I don't want to be the logic police, but that was way too much of a stretch. That, and aside from the classic snappy Sorkin dialogue, I didn't think the story was that fascinating. I felt I had seen it all before, and it tried to do so much: women's rights, freedom of expression, and body image. I mean, it was almost as if it was expressly made for the faculty of Harvard and the editorial board of the New York Times because it didn't miss a woke beat minus the freedom of expression. The movie mainly was also inside baseball of how a TV show comes together, which is why, I think, it's getting some Oscar attention. Most Oscar voters love movies that show how difficult it is to put together a show or movie, and yes, it is. But most audiences could care less. Ultimately, the disconnect between the actors and who they were supposed to be playing proved the greatest overcome. Amazon will have to hope for some Emmy Gold once that gazillion-dollar Lord Of the Rings show premieres because Being the Ricardos will not deliver.

Pages from the Commonplace Book

This week, we jump to the early 20th Century and a quote from Rainer Maria Wilke, an Austrian poet, and novelist. Take it away, Rainer:

"Life is not even close to being as logically consistent as our worries; it has many more unexpected ideas and many more facts than we do." 

Indeed, worry never really makes things better, and too often can make you take your eye off what should be the focus. To paraphrase John Lennon: Life is what happens when you're busy worrying about something else. 

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