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Is Netflix Content 'Good Enough'?

4/23/2022

11 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch - professor of Marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 

How old were you when you made your first solo shopping trip?  If you’re a Boomer, Gen X, or Gen Z, your answer might be 8, 12, or even 18.  Japanese youth apparently run errands much earlier—as in age two—to the amazement of many Americans who are now streaming the cultural curiosity.  Whether toddlers should be by themselves on road-trips is a worthy question, as is why people a half-world away are watching a decade-old television show.
 
From ‘Stanger Things,’ to ‘Bridgrton,’ to ‘Squid Game,’ tastes for Netflix series change like the seasons.  Now, one of the streaming giant’s popular properties is an unlikely reality series that comes courtesy of East Asia and the 1990s.
 
‘Old Enough!’ is a documentary-style television program in which Japanese parents send their toddlers on their first independent errands.  Camera crews capture the highly cute and often humorous action, while witty narration added in editing gives viewers a window into what the tots may have been thinking at the time of their adventures.
 
In light of today’s often hovering helicopter parents, it’s refreshing to see young people given real responsibilities and freedom to act independently.  However, it’s also kind of unnerving to watch a kid, who’s still wearing diapers, wander by himself more than a half mile to a grocery store to pick up ingredients for dinner.
 

In terms of social skills, these parents are placing their children far ahead on the developmental curve.  Given what these kids are doing under age four, there’s no telling what they’ll be capable of by the time they’re 10 or 20 . . . if they live that long!
 
In terms of safety, there’s likely little danger to the children.  Camera crews are filming them the entire time, so in some sense they’re safer during shooting than they may be any other day.  However, no camera operator could intervene in time if a three-year-old suddenly skipped off the sidewalk, into the path of a moving vehicle.
 
Another issue to consider any time children are placed in media roles is informed consent.  How can a child under the age of five possibly understand what they’re doing: the risks they’re incurring at the time and the implications their ‘celebrity’ may bring in the future?  Most fathers and mothers pursue their children’s best interest; yet there are always unfortunate cases in which parents become blinded by their offspring’s potential popularity and prosperity and intentionally place them in harm’s way.
 
This potential may be even more of a concern in today’s social media infatuated society.  Now any parent with a smartphone can capture their child doing ‘something special’ and broadcast the clips or stills to anyone in the world. 
 
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All the above are real moral concerns; however, it’s hard to paint ‘Old Enough!’ as irresponsible entertainment.  Most parents who aggressively promote and profit from their children probably have never seen the show.  Also, given the series’ longevity and apparent track record of ‘safe success,’ the show seems like acceptable diversion.
 
So, back to the second question posed at the outset of this piece:  Why have so many Americans suddenly been smitten by a decade-old Japanese documentary featuring toddlers running errands?  ‘Seinfeld’s George Costanza’s gave a reason for watching ‘a show about nothing’ that may help answer the question: “because it’s on TV.”
 
Of course, there’s sarcasm in that answer, but there’s also truth.  Although the increasingly competitive streaming market is saturated with shows, after spending 18 months or more homebound in a pandemic, many people feel they’ve already seen everything worth watching on Netflix, which has left the company scrambling for new content—scouring space and time for entertainment that will keep people from unsubscribing.
 
Speaking of subscriptions, during the first quarter of 2022, Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers and even more staggering, it expects to lose 2 million more by July—an announcement that has precipitated a decline in the company’s stock price of more than 30%.
 
During video rental era and in the early years of streaming, competitors had largely the same video libraries, so cost and convenience were key to attracting customers.  Now content is the most important differentiator, as evidenced by the rapid rise of relatively new competitor Disney+, which has ridden the popularity of proprietary shows like ‘The Mandalorian,’ ‘The Beatles: Get Back,’ and a long list of Disney movies.
 
Netflix needs original content.  Over the past five-to-seven years, it’s certainly had success creating content, but subscribers burned through that content with a flurry of pandemic-prompted binge-watching.  Creating compelling original content takes considerable time, money, and expertise, but even then, there are no guarantees it will be well-received.
 
These reasons are likely why Netflix acquired the streaming rights for ‘Old Enough!’—a show the company could make available immediately to a subscriber base that, by and large, had never seen it, but would find it at least a little entertaining, since reality TV still resonates and people like cute kids.
 
Netflix also probably didn’t overpay for those rights.  True to the show’s name, the 20 episodes now on Netflix were produced in 2013,  nearly a decade ago, giving ‘Old Enough!’ a double meaning and likely meaning that the series was a bargain.  Unfortunately, inexpensive does not necessarily mean good.
 
My wife and I are not representative of all Netflix subscribers, but after watching three episodes of the grocery-toting toddlers, we had our fill.  The children were cute, and the scenarios were kind of funny, but reading the subtitles made the entertainment feel a little like work.  Even though a fourth episode promised a different kid in a unique situation, it didn’t seem like we’d really see anything new.
 
Perhaps ‘Old Enough!’ has outperformed Netflix executives’ expectations.  Still, the show can’t be more than a bandage on the company’s expanding wound of subscriber attrition, which will only be healed by a more drastic strategic prescription.
 
Interestingly, Netflix is now looking to incorporate advertising.  Such sponsorships could help contain, if not lower, the cost of the platform; however, people won’t stay subscribed just because rates don’t rise, any more than they'll watch shows ‘just because they’re on TV.’  Subscribers of any streaming service must believe there’s enough new, engaging content to warrant whatever amount they’re paying.
 
There are no serious moral concerns over a show about toddlers ‘doing nothing,’ but there’s also little economic upside for a streaming giant that desperately needs more compelling original content.  For these reasons, Netflix’s ‘Old Enough!’ is good enough to be “Simple-Minded Marketing.”


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Harmful Humor

4/10/2022

7 Comments

 
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by David Hagenbuch - professor of Marketing at Messiah University -
​author of 
Honorable Influence - founder of Mindful Marketing 

I still don’t get it. College professors are supposed to be insightful, but I’m baffled by reactions to Will Smith’s infamous Oscars slap.  Most people have rightly condemned the violent reaction, but why aren’t more talking about the joke that sparked the response?  Society’s double-standard for humor can be confusing and consternating, which are reasons to consider how individuals and organizations should lean into laughter.
 
Most of us have now seen the clip of actor Will Smith striding onto the Oscars stage and striking award presenter Chris Rock across the face.  The unimaginable physical altercation on Hollywood’s biggest night came because of a quip Rock made about the baldness of Smith’s spouse, Jada Pinkett Smith, who suffers from alopecia, a condition that causes complete hair loss. 
 
Smith’s reaction was wrong.  No matter the nature of the verbal offense, real or imagined, there was no reason for him to respond violently.  Still, such condemnation shouldn’t stop anyone from asking whether Rock stepped over a line.
 
Of course, Rock is a comedian whose job is to make people laugh—a charge that’s particularly important when appearing at the Oscars, one of the most high-profile gigs a comedian can get. 
 
Also, Oscars hosts and presenters have a history of lightly razzing celebrities in attendance.  Legendary comedian and 19-time Oscars host Bob Hope was perhaps the earliest propagator of that tradition, making quips like this one during his 1971 monologue: “But this is a strange business.  Just think, Frank Sinatra announced he was quitting show business and they gave him a humanitarian award.”
 
Billy Crystal, the second most frequent Oscars host (9 times), also had a habit of ribbing famous actors, as he did Clint Eastwood in 1993 for his role in Unforgiven:  “Clint, of course, played that ruthless character, and you know he used those same tactics when he cleaned up that lawless renegade town of Carmel, California when he was the mayor there . . . It was Clint Eastwood who instituted the no crème brulee after 10:00 pm ordinance.”
 
Rock was himself an Academy Awards host in 2016, at which time he gave much of his monologue to highlighting the unsettling fact that there were no Black nominees at what he called “the White People’s Choice Awards.”  He also took a jab at Pinkett Smith for boycotting ‘Oscars So White,’ suggesting it didn’t make sense for her to spurn an event to which she wasn’t invited.
 
Compared to the biting personal attacks for which insult comedians like Don Rickles, Lisa Lampanelli, and Andrew Dice Clay have been known, Rock’s comments may seem benign.  Some might also suggest that humor is inherently controversial, i.e., some people will like a particular joke, while others will not.
 
It’s true that humor, like beauty, is in the ‘mind of the beholder’; however, there is a relatively clear line that individuals and organizations can avoid crossing to ensure that their jest about others isn’t injurious:
 
It’s usually okay to playfully point out the peculiar things that people do or say, but don’t joke about who they are.
 
Before offering some personal examples to support this suggestion, those who don’t know me well should understand that I’m far from a ‘wet blanket’ when it comes to humor:  I love to laugh and endeavor to inject ad hoc humor into my classes, which I’ve found keeps students engaged, provides a brief reprieve from back-to-back-to-back classes, and lightens the load of weighty issues and complex concepts.
 
Other professors cite similar benefits.  In fact, I recently read a Harvard Business article, “What educators can learn from comedians,” that offered empirical evidence for the third benefit above.
 
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David Stolin, professor of finance at TBS education, collaborated with comedian Sammy Obeid, host of Netflix’s 100 Humans series, to create a variety of educational videos, some humorous and others serious.  The researchers found that “when students were assigned humorous videos, they had consistently higher engagement and subsequent test performance.”  So, among other things, humor helps learning.
 
I haven’t formally studied the same causal relationship, but I have done research on “playful teasing,” which suggests that good-natured ribbing helps build social bonds.  I sometimes use that type of humor with my students, which brings me to my first personal example.
 
In one of my recent classes, a discussion about personal branding turned to ‘what coaches can do to encourage their players when they’re down.’  One of the students, who’s a college athlete, began to share her team’s current experience, saying, “It’s funny because two of my teammates tore their ACLs . . .”  As she briefly paused to finish the sentence, I couldn’t resist interjecting some seemingly serious censure, “There’s nothing funny about that.”
 
Students, including the one who was speaking, laughed, and a classmate quipped, “I’m going to tell your coach!”  The student finished her story and, of course, revealed that by “funny” she didn’t mean amusing but coincidental.  People knew I was kidding because of the hyperbole of my comment, because we often joke in class, and because the students, all of whom I’ve had in other courses, know my penchant for dry humor.
 
The second example came a few years earlier when one of my students turned the comedic tables on me.  As our class was discussing a case study about a particular west-coast-based restaurant chain, I showed a few pictures of my family and me, over the years, at various locations of the chain.
 
One student noticed something peculiar in the pictures and commented, “Dr. Hagenbuch, don’t you ever let your shirt out?  Even on vacation, it’s tucked in!”  I tried to argue that in a couple of the photos my shirt only looked to be tucked, but no one was buying it.  We all had a good laugh, and shirt tucking became an ongoing joke for us.
 
Then, during the last class of the semester, I shared a specially made PowerPoint titled “Dr. Hagenbuch Untucked” that contained a dozen or more different family photos, all with my shirts outside my pants.  The class appreciated the levity of the short slideshow and its homage to our inside joke.  A couple years later, the student responsible for the original “untucked” playful tease, told me that our repartee was a highlight of his college experience.
 
The point of these examples is it’s very possible to laugh without shaming or otherwise hurting people, even when the humor is targeted toward one person.  The key is a pure motive and playfully pointing out something silly the person inadvertently said (“It’s funny because . . .”) or did (shirts tucked in).
 
Rock’s Oscars jabs at Pinkett Smith failed both times to follow that protocol and instead took aim squarely at who she is.  In 2016, his joke about her not being invited to the ceremony was a painful suggestion that she’s not a good enough actor.  At the latest event, he made light of a physical condition that she cannot change and that likely makes her self-conscious.
 
For me, such humor is out-of-bounds; however, I wanted to hear the opinions of people who know much more than I do about psychology, sociology, and how Rock’s joke may have impacted not just Pinkett Smith but others.  I reached out to two of my colleagues who teach in our university’s graduate program in counseling.  They shared these reflections:
 
Dr. Leah K. Clarke, Director and Associate Professor of Counseling
“My own reaction to the joke was a resigned disappointment that women’s appearances and bodies, including black women’s hair, continue to be fair game for public discourse. Women and girls learn, almost from birth, that their bodies can be commented on, evaluated, touched, and utilized for other’s profit or pleasure. I’m not sure you could even count the number of songs that reference women’s appearances or specific body parts.”
 
“Pinkett Smith had previously shared about the source of her baldness, but even in doing so she acknowledged she felt she had to. Because otherwise the conversation about what was going on her scalp would happen without her. And she was right, Chris Rock and her husband had an interaction related to her appearance without her involvement or consent. The idea that her hair might be of no interest and nobody’s business doesn’t seem to occur to anyone.”
 
Dr. Sarah Brant-Rajahn, Assistant Professor of Counseling, School Counseling Track Coordinator
“Rock’s joke triggered the pain of many women and Black women, in particular, about ideals that are attached to appearance and hair as a beauty standard.  I was surprised that such a joke would come from Rock, after his Good Hair (2009) documentary highlighted issues around Black-American women and the perception of their hair being acceptable or desirable.”
 
“As Pinkett Smith, like so many other women, attempt to boldly embrace their authentic selves and engage in self-love, they are met with ridicule, judgment, and shame when this true self does not align with societal notions of beauty. And to an extent, Rock’s joke and many like them can be viewed as bullying, as Pinkett Smith likely felt powerless to defend herself at a professional event, with an audience, and in a space that was being publicly recorded and viewed. There was a clear imbalance of power here where a male with a microphone and a stage demeans a female who does not have the same capacity to share her voice at the time.”
 
“While it is likely that Rock did not consider these implications, as he is a comedian and comedians make jokes about many people and topics, we would be remiss to not name and address the potential impact such comments have on girls and women, as well as the perpetual devaluation of them based on appearance.”
 
Beyond many specific truths, my overarching takeaway from both these experts’ assessments is that humor’s impact extends beyond the parties directly involved—a realization I’d also had through my research into playful teasing. 
 
People often learn vicariously, i.e., from observing others’ firsthand experiences.  Just as we can ‘feel’ that a stove is hot by watching someone else touch it, we can feel ridiculed when we hear or see someone deride a person who is in some way like us, e.g., race, body type.
 
Because the Academy Awards is broadcast to millions of people worldwide, Rock’s joke was at the expense of thousands of people with alopecia, not just Pinkett Smith.  Furthermore, as Clarke and Brant-Rajahn have suggested, women and especially Black women were right to feel that their bodies and appearances were once more objectified for public consumption.
 
Their thoughts pinpoint the hypocrisy to which I alluded at the beginning of this piece.  How can a society claim it’s concerned about bullying, shaming, and mental health, but be accepting of things like mean tweets, taunting, and caustic comedy?  It's hard to understand why more aren’t alarmed by the troubling connections.
 
So, what does this analysis have to do with marketing?  For any of us who aspire to make others laugh, how we handle humor becomes part of our brand, whether we’re an individual like Rock or an organization like GoDaddy, which is still trying to break free from its oversexualized Super Bowl ad humor more than a decade ago.  The character of one’s comedy has long-lasting implications for one’s brand.
 
Just as the same medicine that helps people can hurt them if taken incorrectly, the ‘best medicine,’ laughter, can hurt people when its wrongly administered.  It’s fine to playfully tease people for silly things they do or say, but we shouldn’t make light of who they are.
 
It seems that Rock’s stock has risen since the last Oscars, probably due to extra publicity he’s received, as well as sympathy from the slap.  However, those truly deserving empathy are the ones Rock’s putdown humor belittled directly and by extension.  The impact on them makes Rock’s ridicule “Single-Minded Marketing.”
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    David Hagenbuch,
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