The Impact of Contemporary Movies: A business perspective.
My reaction after seeing Avengers: Endgame over the weekend with a friend, the turn out was bonkers!
In April 2019, HBO’s popularly revered drama series, Game of Thrones finale introduced us to heroes — and heroines — in new, untold ways while audiences around the world flocked to rejoin some of their beloved characters in Avengers: Endgame.
Even with a myriad of viewing options available to audiences; Cinema remains the foremost avenue to experience the magic of our movies. And the good news for producers, filmmakers and theatre owners is there are positive signs for greater growth.
Nagging is Key…Stay Woke !
Comparing the movies of yesteryears to the movies of today is like comparing a toy water gun to a Russian AK-47. What we are experiencing today is unprecedented, it’s much more sophisticated and pervasive, it’s not that movies themselves are bad or good. It is manipulating people into watching it, similar to research conducted on why children nag by Western international media in 1998. They asked Parents to keep a diary for three weeks and record every time their children nagged for a product.
They were asked to record behaviours based on three factors: when, where and why. The aim of the research was not to help parents cope with nagging, it was to help companies help children nag for their products more effectively. Any profit margin from 20% to 40% of sales would not have occurred unless the child had nagged their parents. For example, a quarter of all visits to amusement, theme parks and malls wouldn’t have occurred unless a child nagged their parents which should be relatable to any parent.
Why would any busy adult spend over two hours of their weekend in a place with lots of noise and rowdiness, but if their child nags enough they will go. We need to break through this barrier of businesses manipulating consumers into wanting and therefore buying the product. It’s a game that benefits no one but the exploiter, and it has been like this for decades. Children are not little adults and their minds are developing, therefore, companies are playing into their development vulnerabilities.
What can be done to put the parents out of these miseries? Unfortunately, no cure has been found. Nonetheless, if parents decide to take their children out due to their interest in the movie/products or succumb to the pester pressure from their offsprings, this article admonishes that educating them to understand what the products are is key, assuming someone enlightens the parents.
The Inevitable subtle manipulation: The Marvel & HBO Masterclass
The movies, characters, and imagery showcased to people now are honed by psychologists and technological advancement in big data; no one envisaged. The more insight these companies have about the consumer, the more creative they will be in communicating their strategies. I’m not saying it’s wrong to make things or movies for children. However, it is crucial to distinguish between the motive of the psychologist who works on the production of these movies and what’s driving the viewership for the audience.
In a country like the USA, the cost of media time is well worth over $20billion per annum. Ads on TV, prints, radio time, Internet; one family cannot combat against a company that spends $12billion a year on marketing and branding targeting their children. They cannot do it!
Technology has advanced, however, the fundamental concept of brand loyalty remains the same.
Kids are tomorrow’s adult consumers, talk with them now to build that relationship when they are younger, and you’ve got them as an adult.
It’s not surprising to see why lots of adults are behaving like little children these days. Businesses are manipulating these children for profit making, which raises ethical concerns.
Is it ethical? I don’t know, but from a producer’s perspective, their aim is to sell movies, and if they are aware, they sell more movies with a specific creative execution placed in a certain media vehicle, then they have done their job! extremely well at that!
Every company provides the people who are members of it; a social role to occupy. Typically, vibrant businesses with lots of power will specify that role as a virtue, it applies to any institution that has power over people and shapes them. We see it in Churches, Universities, etc. Businesses likewise, provide a list of virtues and a social role which is the “good and loyal consumer”.
Like the waters of the mighty ocean, people also represent a tremendous force, the understanding of which is the greatest importance to the way of life. This force is known as “consumer power”. The goal for the DC, Marvel, HBO, Apple, et al is to maximise profit and market share. And they also have a goal for their target, namely the world population — you and I.
The aim is to morph you and me into complete mindless consumers of fictions we do not really need. By developing what are called created wants — they have to create wants and impose on people regarding the philosophy of futility; which aligns the focus of the consumer on the insignificant things of life like fashionable consumption.
The idea is to have individuals unrelated from one another, whose sense of value and conception of themselves hinges on the amount of created wants they can satisfy. These people will trade money for materialism and a sense of belonging. There is a recurring need to fit in so that if peers are talking about Game of Thrones or Avengers, they can blend in the conversation and not look odd or uncool. Not only do they consume the products, but there is also an urge for unwarranted publicity and advertisement. This only explains why movie loyalist and ardent fans wake up on a Monday morning, give themselves a self-imposed task of making memes about GOT, Avengers, et al. without a monetary reward while their favourite characters are making millions of dollars.
Business as Usual
In the worldwide box office, Avengers: Endgame has grossed over $1.2billion, while this article postulates Game of Thrones making $1.6 billion as at 2017, we have these movie industries, huge tech industries, game industries, advertising and so on designed from infancy to mold people into this desired pattern. Particularly, facilitated by the endorsements of our favourite celebs and role models.
They use some of the best creative minds to reassure our faiths in these movies; they seduce us with brand beguiling illusions designed to divert our minds and manufacture our consent such that we freely propagate their vision on various social media platforms.
Today, more than ever before, there are more storytelling platforms, producers and filmmakers are continually discovering new technologies and talents to weave these tales. Simultaneously, theatre owners are investing in the best ways to showcase movies with better visuals, sound, and special effects. This partnership — and incessant innovation — among production, distribution, and exhibition is a vital sign the global film industry remains strong.
Movies continue to play a major role in our lives and our cultures. As corroborated in the 2018 Theatrical Market Statistics Report, the movie-going experience, around the world is laudable.
Nowadays, businesses do not advertise products particularly; they’re advertising a way of life and thinking, a story of who we are as people and how we got here and what’s the source of our freedom, and you know we have decades and decades of propaganda and education teaching us to think and act in a certain way. When applied to the big companies is inevitable, indispensable and somehow remarkably efficient and responsible for the progress and good life.
Perception management is an interesting concept, basically, a method which helps companies when working with their clients to go through a systematic, thoughtful process to help their customers identify the resources they have, the barriers to their success, and how communications can market their objectives.
and other paraphernalia…
Branding is not advertising, its production, the very successful companies do not create products, they produce brand meaning. The dissemination of the idea is an act of production which is an enormously invasive project. So how do you make a brand idea? A good way to start is building a 3D dimensional manifestation of your brand, for a company like Disney, it goes further, where they built a town celebration in Florida, US, their inspiration and brand image.
The brand driver is family and magic, and the company does it in and around those two words. A branded environment such as Disney world or Disney land extends that brand. Film animated and family oriented film. As a business though, they also know that if they want to get in other forms of entertainment that does not fit family magic, they do not brand it “Disney”. With the adult film for the more matured audience, they brand it: touchstone.
What happens when we wake up one day and find out that virtually all of our relationships mediated between us and our fellow human beings are arbitrated commercial relationships? Can civilisation survive on that narrow definition of how we interact with each other?
I will leave you with the winds of winter.
Valar dohaeris
Ayò
April 2019
