Is "get woke, go broke" an actual phenomenon?

[Pee Cola]

I'd also add the Chevy Volt, which was the $2 billion dollar car the Obama admin wanted GM to build but nobody actually wanted to buy.

"Get woke, go broke" was one of the tactics successfully deployed by GM to try and hasten their exit from the Australian auto market, thus killing the Holden brand in the process.

Shortly after GM decided to pull the plug on Holden's manufacturing operations down under, their marketing shifted away from the traditional play towards cashed-up bogans flush with sweet mining cash to inner-city latte sipping types. In other words, people that don't usually buy new cars ... but when they do, they buy poxy little eurofag shitboxes like the Mercedes-Benz A-Class (a.k.a. the GAY180) or Fiat 500.

Meanwhile, old mate CUB - the bloke working in the mines that's still buying himself a shiny new set of wheels every couple of years without fail, pandemic or no pandemic - now tows his jetskis with either a Ford Ranger or Toyota Hilux.

 

[Orion Balls]

Wasn't everyone supposed to stop buying Nike and stop watching the NFL all because of the Colin Kaepernik bullshit? That never went anywhere, at all.

 

[Desu Vult]

I'd go so far as to say some of the current wokeshit in entertainment (games, movies, comics, whatever) is basically, well...wokeshielding, for lack of a better word. Built in from the beginning for the sole purpose of acting as a safeguard against criticism. If someone doesn't like the product, it's not because our product is shit, it's because they are (secretly) alt right, nahtzee, cryptofash etc and threatened by it's progressiveness. Basically monetizing the current Moral Majority aka twatterati as free advertising/PR management rather than considering them actual customers.

This shit won't blow over before the current cultural zeitgeist changes and the wokeshit becomes considered as passe. At which point the wokesters will become ridiculed comic relief characters in media almost overnight.

 

[Safir]

How is this a thread in the year of our Lord 2020? Wokeness is not The Cause, it's the most obvious symptom, like flies on a corpse. Either the company has been mismanaged and infested with woke nepotism hires, or the business/"franchise" is dying/dead and wokeness is a failed attempt to revive it.

The difference (not obvious to the layperson) is that it's very hard to turn the company around. It's not enough to just not go woke. Over in the Star Wars thread, people talk about how it's extremely difficult and costly to oust Kathleen Kennedy, "even though" Disney is a publicly traded company which should be profit-focused. But it's not just her: there are a lot of fart huffers and wolf molesters to run off, and the quality content producers of old, from honest hardworking writers to idea guys, needed to have their autism kept in check. It's easy to say, let's hire GeneralFriendliness as the global brand manager. Yes, I am convinced that a few kiwis, or even a few r/saltierthancrait posters, can course-correct Star Wars. But the people making HR decisions are too enmired in preexisting obligations to make good decisions.

Ver archivo adjunto 1290163

Dude what. Gillette, an international company, lost $8 billion over 14 years. Blaming 25% of that on a single ad shown in one country is more autistic than the dimensional merge.

Few people care about wokeness either way. All products have a lifespan. "People are buying fewer plastic garbage razors and are moving to classier and less wasteful alternatives, what should we do? (A) make classier alternatives, lose money (B) make plastic garbage, lose money (C) make plastic garbage and go woke, lose money".

Apple invented the smartphone and look where it got them. It's no coincidence that the fall of Gillette started the same year (2007): this change in purchasing behavior was caused by the ubiquitous pocket internet access and social media.

Kodak died when they missed the digital camera train. Cheapass digital cameras, as well as most normal cell phones, have been replaced by smartphones. No amount of based would've saved these products.

And the same goes for entertainment, really. Copyright used to be 14-28 years and it should've stayed that way. Recent history shows even the original creators themselves can't maintain the consistency of their output. These days, corporate execs look at a 40-year-old property the company "owns", an idea that was fresh and original back then but has been done and redone and memed to hell since, and think, we own this, we have to do something with this. And there comes the woke. It will fail like most everything else would've failed, but it's a safe move that's hard to question for fellow corporate rats.

 

[Syaoran Li]

That's pretty much the case with every social movement.

All these right wing spergs saying "we need to punish China" and yet they can't do the basic task of not buying Chinese products.

As much as I hate the "I consume X because it's inescapable" excuse, there's actually some validity to it when it comes to abstaining from Chinese products, since so many consumer goods are made there. Not just trivial electronic trinkets either, but even basic everyday necessity goods are mostly manufactured in China.

Otherwise, you're spot on

 

[NyQuilninja]

I just want to watch a movie or show that has actual story development and characters I care about.

 

[Shield Breaker]

Proctor and Gamble owners of Gilette who made that god awful "Men Suck and Do Better" video followed up by "My Trans Daughter shaves too!" video.

Both shaved BILLIONS off P&G's balance sheet and had some spokesdude out of NZ (in order to bury the lead) say "This was the wrong track to align our customers needs and base" because every middle American man AND woman said "No, fuck that I'm not buying Gillette AND not buying other stuff by P&G". Gillette's woke stance to talk about politics and feelings instead of...fucking selling razors to people caused an uptick in competitors brands who kept on point with the message "you are a man, we like you, you buy our product, buy more please?" Harry's, Dollar Shave Club, and other brands took off like gangbusters.


You know what videos are made by Gillette now? White army dudes getting home from war hugging their kids and the wife saying "Smooth skin honey!"


So yes, normal people don't want to see Identity Politics, Social Justice Liberalism, and Fringe Progressive messages in their ads for shit they shave their body with.

Same thing happened with Ghosbusters. If you want to see how normal women viewed the movie, here's a 4 minute review by Rawrist. Be sure to pay attention to the tweets she posts above as she talks about it.

Most of us don't hate men, even if you guys are frustrating sometimes.

 

[Idiotron]

Has there ben an actual case of "get woke, go broke", because to me it just seems like people are giving a corporation free advertising.

Just off the top of my head:
1. Gillette's ad telling men how evil they are made them lose $8 billion (that's probably the biggest one).
2. Charlie's Angels 2020 + Ghostbusters 2016 + Terminator: Dark Fate all lost a ton of money and, based on what I've gathered, it's because their marketing campaigns were all about "female driven content" and "sticking it to the manbabies" instead of actually promoting the movies themselves.
3. The Watchmen big budget HBO series got cancelled after 1 season because they butchered the original material to make it about fighting white supremacy. HBO also never released a supposedly "very woke" pilot of a GoT spin off (which cost $40 million, maybe the most expensive TV show episode of all time).
4. Kickstarter just fired 40% of their staff because their policies of not allowing "far right" people on their website drove both the campaigners and backers away (IndieGoGo is doing fine because they don't do that).
5. Marvel and DC comic book divisions.... do I even need to say anything?
6. Not media related but a lot of left leaning political parties all over the world have suffered big defeats last decade because of focusing on race, gender and sexuality instead of actual issues.
7. Media outlets pushing wokeness are losing money left and right (CNN and BBC leading the way in that department).

On the other hand, I've noticed that going against woke culture often boosts popularity and profits:
1. Joker's marketing was all about how edgy and politically incorrect it is and it's the most profitable comic book movie of all time (budget to profit ratio).
2. Dave Chapelle's current career is entirely based on being "anti-woke" and a lot of people watch his stuff just because it's marketed as that.
3. Many many people have made lucrative careers on nothing but talking shit about wokeness (Sargon, Crowder, Shapiro, everybody who talks about the Disney Star Wars movies or mainstream comic books).

These are just the examples I can think of without looking them up.

 

[Kosher Dill]

or the business/"franchise" is dying/dead and wokeness is a failed attempt to revive it.

This is correct. Go broke, then get woke. Once you get desperate enough, you're ready to believe the huckster telling you there's a vast untapped market out there that you can attract with One Weird Trick.

 

[Pomniman]

The phrase is mostly something autistic clickbaiter faggots on youtube like Jeremy Hambly recite like a prayer but everyone does eventually get sick of getting constantly preached at even if they initially believed in whatever was being preached. It's an inherently dumb idea from a marketing perspective. As said above, it's mostly a symptom of a decaying brand/industry rather than the cause but it's still an obnoxious thing that's become a go-to tactic for idiots in corporate boardrooms who think shrill twitter cat ladies and their castrati hangers-on will save their dying brand or when some twat from HR sucks enough dick/eats enough pussy to get promoted to a VP spot.

 

[Lemmingwise]

Most of us don't hate men, even if you guys are frustrating sometimes

Women are so full of it.

 

[Tismguide]

Especially when the current society is set up for all the smarter ish people to be funneled to be fanboys then drones of brands and their hobbies.

I think I have a rough idea of what you mean by this, but I'd be very interested to hear more about this if you'd care to elaborate. Something weird happened in the 2010s around the term "nerd" shifting from producer to consumer in my perception, and I don't fully understand it.

Apple invented the smartphone and look where it got them. It's no coincidence that the fall of Gillette started the same year (2007): this change in purchasing behavior was caused by the ubiquitous pocket internet access and social media.

I agree that the smartphone led to changes in consumption and that changes in consumption led to the downfall of disposable razors. Is there a more specific connection I'm missing?

1. Gillette's ad telling men how evil they are made them lose $8 billion (that's probably the biggest one).

Dude what. Gillette, an international company, lost $8 billion over 14 years. Blaming 25% of that on a single ad shown in one country is more autistic than the dimensional merge.

This looks to me like Gillette going broke led to woke, not the other way around. I could believe that ad hurt them some, but that $2B number is just wildly implausible wishful thinking. I want it to be true too, but it isn't. It's the same end-of-history triumphalism the wokeshits are always crowing about.

There were a few threads that came out around that ad with interesting discussion on who makes purchasing decisions for household products [hint: Karen]. I buy the claim that that ad is just a new twist on the "men are clumsy/clueless loveable oafs" schtick that's been going on for decades. Maybe they overshot and alienated women who don't hate men, but it's not a sea change.

4. Kickstarter just fired 40% of their staff because their policies of not allowing "far right" people on their website drove both the campaigners and backers away (IndieGoGo is doing fine because they don't do that).

They fired the employees because they unionized. Same with Buzzfeed layoffs (which I'd add to your list). Wokeness may have played a role in the employees choosing to unionize, but that could be either because it led to runaway profits which made them think they could get a bigger slice of the pie or desperation as the ship started to sink.

5. Marvel and DC comic book divisions.... do I even need to say anything?

Weren't they circling the drain before they went woke? I do think in the case of comics the woke is definitely accelerating the decline. Marvel the comic studio is toast the second capeshit movies stops selling so well and not a moment before.

On the other hand, I've noticed that going against woke culture often boosts popularity and profits:
1. Joker's marketing was all about how edgy and politically incorrect it is and it's the most profitable comic book movie of all time (budget to profit ratio).
2. Dave Chapelle's current career is entirely based on being "anti-woke" and a lot of people watch his stuff just because it's marketed as that.

This, I agree with completely, especially Joker. When woke media is trying to sell a product, you don't know if they care more about being woke or selling it. When woke media is trying to tank a product, they're either true believers or trying to sell it with controversy. Even if it's the latter, and they can sell it to a broad audience, I think it supports your argument. I guess it could be unrelated -- a good movie sells, and marketing only matters at the margins.

And I at least greatly enjoyed when Contrapoints went after Chapelle and got smacked down. That was great.

3. Many many people have made lucrative careers on nothing but talking shit about wokeness (Sargon, Crowder, Shapiro, everybody who talks about the Disney Star Wars movies or mainstream comic books).

Are they mainstream or pandering to a niche? Established players can pander, but how much easier/harder would it be today to get your start as a YouTuber selling anti-SJW content instead of some other political/culture war/edge ideas*?

Look at ShoeOnHead/ArmoredSkeptic. The only constant in their content is the pandering, not who it's to.

* [sticking to politics as a baseline because AIUI YouTube in general would much rather show you lifestyle channels to help you consume product more efficiently than even Google approved woke politics]

 

[Spamy the Bot]

I think I have a rough idea of what you mean by this, but I'd be very interested to hear more about this if you'd care to elaborate. Something weird happened in the 2010s around the term "nerd" shifting from producer to consumer in my perception, and I don't fully understand it.

(Enjoy a badly organised rambling, just for you.)
There were 3 trends going on, working hand in hand.

• mainstreaming nerd media
• repeated success of media franchises with good merch opportunities
• social media changing the fandom landscape

Corporations love having a good brand, and in the last few decades we do see multiple brands emerging where the fans would buy tons of plastic crap and other things that are beside the main product ie. movies or games.

While the concept is not that new considering Disney pioneered it with the theme parks and Disney character merch, I would say Star Wars was the big game changer. Lucas made a ton of money by selling toys to adults. The industry didn't really caught up with it for a long time. But around the 00s we start to see stuff like Harry Potter and the Marvel movies starting to become their own hugely popular brands. The old high concept blockbuster movie was replaced by the cinematic universe, media franchise concept. Why make 5 forgettable and unrelated movies (requiring separate brain space for the audience to know about) when you can make 5 forgettable movies which share the same name and basically reinforce each others cultural staying power?

If we look at these brands they printed money like nothing ever before. Getting billions of dollars out of basically a few movies and good marketing puts huge incentives for corporations to push this route. Pretty much a reason to see the infinite reboots, remasters and remakes. Not to mention everything wants to be a trilogy on the first movie etc. Generalisation, I know but just to illustrate the point.

And ultimately this gets rolled into one by the effects of social media. Old nerd culture was way more selective towards dedicated people with lot of time. Taking part in the community was for fun and bragging rights in the community, it was pretty much looked down upon by both media and people. So the incentive was for dedicated people who really liked or was interested in that thing. When social media arrived the general watering down of people and shifting of incentives happened.

Basically the non financial part of the culture got corrupted by upvotes while the newly created commercial aspect of fan cottage industries both made the thing feel cynical (for my taste). It is never been easier to get into anything, read the wikia and make lore explanation videos, make coomershit art or be an okay looking girl and cosplay the waifu of the now. This hunt for upvotes and money basically created e-celebs who spawn more e-celebs which drives the communities into being more consumer oriented and less creation focused.

Bonus: When a community is small enough and have a steady growth rate they can assimilate newcomers, but if the incoming people who bring up even more outside people keep coming the old group gets first outnumbered then kicked out. See how nerds who were actually tolerant let in the troons, women and others and after a while these groups gained leverage over the whole community and started policing and kicking out others who where originally there and built the whole thing.

 

[אΩ+1]

As much as I hate the "I consume X because it's inescapable" excuse, there's actually some validity to it when it comes to abstaining from Chinese products, since so many consumer goods are made there. Not just trivial electronic trinkets either, but even basic everyday necessity goods are mostly manufactured in China.

Otherwise, you're spot on

One doesn't start a full boycott of made in china products first, without first not purchasing from Chinese companies like Hauwei and TLC and buying products that you can not made in China.

 

[Notgoodwithusernames]

I think get woke go broke needs to be changed to “go broke. get woke in an attempt to appeal to a group of people you assume will consoom your product which leads to you digging yourself deeper.” Wokeness by itself does not kill brands. It can be detrimental to them but is not fatal unless combined with other factors

 

[Dysnomia]

I think a bit of it is both the stigma that the end product is most likely going to turn out garbage, and the fact that the audience they pander to doesn't eat those up. The woke types I see on Twitter are more likely to play something like the latest Nintendo game than Mass Effect: Andromeda. They won't buy what caters exactly to them, they'll buy another mass produced safe video game. The "SJWs don't buy anything" theory is a myth, it's more like stuff that blatantly targets them doesn't sell.

Compare that to Black Panther. It was a success because it was a movie made for African Americans by African Americans. It was a smash hit worldwide as you'd expect from a MCU film but it did really fucking well in Africa itself as well because of the themes of the movie. They were on key with what their audience will buy and reaped the rewards.

They want the games made so they can throw the woke in people's faces and call everyone some brand of -phobic for criticizing it. Playing the game themselves probably doesn't even enter their minds. They are just in it for the smug factor. Averting your male gaze with walnut cracking jawlines and burly arms. Because that's what real women look like.

 

[HumanHive]

Yes, but it's because diversity is made the priority and quality second.

Look at the difference between Alpha Centauri and Beyond Earth. Both have a vertitable burger king's kids club of ethnic diversity; but SMAC wanted to say something about how ideology would one day trump nationalism and ethnicity, while SMBE has nothing to say save for generic gloom and doom about "the Great Mistake". As if humanity could ever agree on the cause of such a global disaster without finger pointing or political exploitation. It's artificial and this false.

Woke is shallow and nothing but a political fad, that's why it goes broke.

 

[jje100010001]

Proctor and Gamble owners of Gilette who made that god awful "Men Suck and Do Better" video followed up by "My Trans Daughter shaves too!" video.

Both shaved BILLIONS off P&G's balance sheet and had some spokesdude out of NZ (in order to bury the lead) say "This was the wrong track to align our customers needs and base" because every middle American man AND woman said "No, fuck that I'm not buying Gillette AND not buying other stuff by P&G". Gillette's woke stance to talk about politics and feelings instead of...fucking selling razors to people caused an uptick in competitors brands who kept on point with the message "you are a man, we like you, you buy our product, buy more please?" Harry's, Dollar Shave Club, and other brands took off like gangbusters.


You know what videos are made by Gillette now? White army dudes getting home from war hugging their kids and the wife saying "Smooth skin honey!"

This has mostly escaped notice, but I want to know which Ad Agency was responsible for those ads.

Bonus: When a community is small enough and have a steady growth rate they can assimilate newcomers, but if the incoming people who bring up even more outside people keep coming the old group gets first outnumbered then kicked out. See how nerds who were actually tolerant let in the troons, women and others and after a while these groups gained leverage over the whole community and started policing and kicking out others who where originally there and built the whole thing.

Sounds pretty close to the idea 4chan theorized years ago.

 

[JektheDumbass]

One thing I noticed (especially on this forum) is a tendency to label things as "woke" when they just mean "shitty". Disney Star Wars wasn't the result of some woke conspiracy, they're just shitty movies made by talentless hacks.

 

[Syaoran Li]

One thing I noticed (especially on this forum) is a tendency to label things as "woke" when they just mean "shitty". Disney Star Wars wasn't the result of some woke conspiracy, they're just shitty movies made by talentless hacks.

Eh, Disney Star Wars is both "woke" and shitty thanks to Rian Johnson being a pretentious hack with The Last Jedi and trying to be all "high art" by "subverting expectations" but it was shitty even before that

The problem is that a lot of shitty movies these days tend to also be at least a little woke, and since the internet slapfights over Fem Ghostbusters back in 2016, a lot of Hollywood studios will put on a veneer of woke marketing so they can try to generate buzz.

If it flops, they can deflect criticism by blaming fans/gators/dudebros/neckbeards/incels/alt-right/Nazis/insert SJW strawman figure here instead of taking responsibility for the failure and seeing what went wrong

If it succeeds, they can also get some internet good boy points and try to get any Twitter tards to consoom the next product of theirs.

TLDR-The "woke conspiracy" is less of a conspiracy and more of a cheap marketing ploy