The Fine Bros Flop
Social media is an incredible platform that offers a wide variety of uses for the benefit of many people. It can be used to promote businesses for example. However, there are times when social media does not always work in favour to the people who actively use it. When it comes to posting, sharing an opinion, or promoting a product or service on social media, it is important that the poster must stay on his or her toes and to think before a post is made. In the case of business practices on social media, a company must have good judgement and foresight as well as always being careful when using social media to promote a product or service. A business by definition is a provider of a good or service, and in a capitalist society, a business needs profit to continue their operations and survive in the market. That is why it is always important to keep the community and the consumers in mind before making a corporate decision, whether it involves promoting a product or a change in company policy. What a company thinks is okay, may not be considered okay in the eyes of the consumers. When a company makes a mistake in this regard, it can have a profound effect on the business, as consumer backlash can deal a serious blow to the company like the loss of revenue, customer loyalty, and a tarnished reputation can result. In recent social media history, there was a significant outrage that took place in response to a certain program launched by a pair of YouTubers that exploded in popularity and was discussed extensively across the board. This of course was the social media fail, the “colossal fuck up” of The Fine Bros.
The Fine Bros are a pair of YouTube content creators that are most famous for their various series of reaction videos including Kids React, Teens React, Elders React, among others. Because of this series, their popularity skyrocketed, generating vast amounts of views and revenue allowing them to become a notable company in the scope of social media. In early 2016, The Fine Bros announced in a video a new program they were launching called React World. The intent of React World was to allow content creators and companies to license their shows and formats so they can create their own versions. This came off as problematic because it was argued by some that the react formats and nature of the content is generic. Some of the policies that were detailed with the announcement of React World was the trademarking of the word ‘react’ — which was something that many YouTubers and content creators feared and inevitably pushed them over the edge. As a result of this announcement, there was a massive uproar against the initiation of the program. The video generated such a huge negative reception that it prompted other popular YouTubers to voice their opinions on the matter — many of which were negative reactions. Due to all the hate The Fine Bros were receiving they cracked under the pressure and discontinued the program.
When applying social media theories to popular events such as this, one specifically comes to mind. There is the notion of planned vs canned content which is based off of how companies use the tools and the strategies they have when it comes to managing social media. Planned content refers to carefully thought out practices and messages from social media companies whereas canned content refers to more irrational, insensitive, and not thoroughly thought out content. In the case of The Fine Bros, I would be inclined to place their decision on launching React World into the canned content variety. Despite whether their intentions were in good faith or not, I would still call it canned content because there were potential harmful effects that other content creators would face if this program went through. One of the problems that arose when this program was announced was the fact that the word ‘react’ would be trademarked. It comes as no surprise that this aspect of the program wasn’t well thought out in regards to how the community would perceive it. Reaction videos are common and all share similar traits. The YouTube community perceived this as The Fine Bros attempt to copyright reaction videos as a whole. This would never be accepted by such a community as YouTube. In addition to this concern, many others saw this as an attempt to “choke off competition and monopolize the genre” (Savov, The Verge). This would be like a hostile corporate takeover of a section of the YouTube media-sphere that so many content creators are passionate about. In the end, I’m glad to see that React World didn’t see the light of day. I believe in the freedom of content creation, especially on a social media platform like YouTube, no ordinary individual should have to endure a corporate instigated legal nightmare when all they’re trying to do is create content.
#RTA902
References:
http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/6/10926230/fine-bros-react-world-controversy
