Sunday, November 4, 2012

Invasion Of The Slicksters

Lots of talk about the marketing push for The Hobbit these days and not just in any fake documents I may or may not have gotten from a fictional character.  Servetus talks about it here and AgzyM talks about it here.  I've been really bugged by it all though I know full well that this is all part of the game but I couldn't put my finger on why for a long time.  This is probably going to ramble a bit but I think I've figured it out.

You know that scene in Jurassic Park where they go into the gift shop and you see all of the movie tie-ins for the first time:  the backpacks, the books, the pencil cases.  It's a really smart, self-aware bit and it's one of my favorite parts of the movie.  Marketers ultimately don't really bother me because I know they're just doing their jobs.  So why is Hobbit instant coffee leaving such a bad taste in my mouth?

It's because of this.


Courtesy Rolling Stone, who may or may not still suck.
That's Nirvana from twenty years ago.  Rolling Stone may have thought they were giving their readers the inside of Kurt's heart and mind but he beat them to it and wore his heart on his t-shirt.  Marketers looooooved grunge, or the potential of it.  It was a youth movement, you know, even if those in the scene didn't see it that way.  Even The New York Times tried to push the bullshit and put it all in a nice box, in their case the infamous Guide to Grunge Speak that left them with egg on their faces and for good reason.  Megan Jasper remains one of my cultural heroes.

So what does this have to do with The Hobbit and its mighty marketing machine?  Not much and that's not really my concern.  What bugs me is how it might affect the DIYness of the RAniverse.  We've really never had slick consumable stuff thrown at us before so we made our own and what we've made has been pretty awesome.  What's more the stuff that we've made has been wholehearted, born out of fondness for our subject and each other rather than the desire to make a buck.  That kind of wholeheartedness is an important ingredient in creativity but what happens when the snark hits?  When someone who doesn't get us -- or worse someone who holds us in contempt -- decides we're ripe for exploitation?  When they try to use us to embarrass him?  You may have to forgive my cynicism on that last one, but it's happened before. 

I'm probably taking it too seriously.  I heard this song this morning and it just set me adrift a little bit.  What do you think?  Comments are open.

 

9 comments:

  1. This is excellent -- I love the connection to the marketing of Nirvana et al (although Courtney Love is on the front of the US page in the Guardian today saying of course there will be no musical) and in a sec I'll link to it.

    My response to what you've written: I think how Armitage feels about anything is his own business -- if he's embarrassed or proud of what his fans do or don't do, that is his determination to make. So far he's said nothing on this specific issue -- I suppose we could read the jokes he made about the Robin Hood marketing in this vein, but they are jokes, not moral pronouncements. It would be interesting if he came out at Christmas saying, "instead of buying this stuff, donate some money to charity," but I think he is unlikely to relate the two activities in that way. (Or it would be unwise for him to do so.)

    That said, I think the point about the stuff intersecting with our desire to represent is right on in terms of its potential attractiveness. I am surprised by how many people on my poll are saying "show my Armitage pride" as a reason for liking the stuff -- but I feel that way, too.

    And raising the point about the question to which the mass market products challenges the DIYness of the fandom is excellent. I actually don't think that's going to change -- in essence, we've always been constructing stuff from bits and pieces given to us by marketers; it's just that we have much, much, much more stuff now. But it's true that the flood of stuff may dampen creativity, or push fan creativity in particular directions that it might not have gone had it not been available.

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    1. You're right, how he feels about it is his business. My experience of this fandom has been one of a nurturing and encouraging place -- even from people who I wouldn't call friends -- and I think my concern is in preserving that. Whether that's for me or for new people I haven't worked out yet but it's probably a bit of both.

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  2. I've been wondering if some of the fans who like to collect all the RA-related merchandise will be able to keep up with The Hobbit juggernaut. Some may not flex their creative muscles due to the mass marketing, however I think that people like to make things to express their feelings and the majority won't be turned off my the merchandise. PS- quit distracting me from NaNoWriMo. ;)

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    1. LOL...this wound up being a lot more negative than what I usually post and like I said above it's probably more me-centric than I thought at first. Plus I got to use that photo, which is one of my favorites.

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  3. Jazzy, could you please elaborate on how this could embarrass RA? I think RA is aware when he signed the contract that he would see himself as dolls, plates, calendars, clothes or anything else they can stick his image to. There is also the possibility that he may be getting a percentage of the movie profits and merchandising, so he may hear a "ching-ching" when he sees an image of himself for all we know.

    The annoying part for me is the rampart commercialism. As Serv said, it is so MUCH stuff. It's like slap an image on anything to squeeze another buck. (Thorin as a toilet wand maybe?) And it does seem to take advantage of the fans who will go out, spend all their money and fill their houses with the stuff, although nobody is twisting their arms to do it.

    I suppose we do have to keep in mind that the budgets for these movies are enough to run a small country. They have to cover expenses and make enough profit to spread around, hence, the merchandise blizzard.

    As for fandom creativity, I'm not sure that will be too affected. I just don't think a fan will be so enamored of her bottle of nail polish (My Precious is really pretty) or her other collectibles, that she won't write another story, draw a picture, or sew a quilt.

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    1. It's not the stuff that's a potential embarrassment to him, it's us or some cynical writer using us to embarrass him. We've all bitched about the Armitage Army questions he gets. It's probably a baseless fear.

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    2. Oh, I see. I suspect if anything, those writers will lump everybody into the Hobbit fandom. Some seem to look askance at any fandom as being bonkers. Yeah, he'll probably take more ribbing about the new Thorin squeeing, but that seems to come with the territory.

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  4. Is there really a lot more merchandising associated with this movie than many others? I generally do not pay much attention to movies and even less to the merchandise so I do not have a frame of reference for this movie.

    The fans who are creative are still going to be creative. There has already been some wonderful artwork of Thorin and what is nice is that they have gotten the attention of the LOTR fans too. Keep in mind, we haven't even seen the movie yet. Once the movie is out, there might be a lot more activity from the RA folks.

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    1. Hi, Kathie, and welcome to the blog. The Hobbit is in full swing blockbuster marketing mode and let me be clear that there's not a thing wrong with that, with marketers making money, with the movie studio earning back what they've already put into it or with the actors and others earning as much as they possibly can. What I'm anticipating is that the fandom as it exists, the fandom that my friends and I have had a hand in creating, is going to be misrepresented, exploited or mocked for it's creativity. I get that people outside of fandom in general don't get it and I'm fine with that but I'm also acknowledging that when others mock something that you've created wholeheartedly it can really hurt. I'm still not sure why this got so under my skin, rereading my post just now I still don't think I'm clear about it even in my head.

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Thanks for commenting!