It is fair to say that the entertainment industry was partially conned. First, there are those tantalizing ESG loans that can be easily had as long a company loudly declares their fealty to the social justice agenda. Then, of course, there is the fact that many corporate CEOs and marketing people track Twitter trends with the ignorant assumption that Twitter is actually a reflection of the real world. The woke mob on Twitter is amplified by the company itself, while most contrary voices are stifled and buried. Anyone using the Twitter echo chamber as a marketing gauge would be led to believe that leftist ideology is the prevailing ideology of the nation. It's not even close.
Some companies are finally realizing this fact and are taking action to reduce their exposure to woke content, or otherwise perish from loss of viewership. Here's the thing – Leftists could take over every platform for media distribution (they almost have), but they still can't force the public to consume woke content. Eventually, the loss of viewers and profits is going to hurt their bottom line.
Most notably, Zaslav was behind the torching of news service CNN+ after less than a month of operation when it utterly failed to pull in subscribers. Now, he has shelved the $100 million 'Batgirl' movie, a woke travesty with woke directors which test audiences hated. He is also reportedly cutting the impending Supergirl movie, which rumors indicate was designed to replace the beloved Superman franchise with a female version played by a race swapped actress of Colombian descent (the original Supergirl is supposed to be white and blonde).
Another event that shocked leftists was Netflix taking an ax to "First Kill," a lesbian vampire series that no one asked for and apparently no one watched.
This was after Netflix canceled a host of woke programming in the past couple of months, including a show called “Anti-Racist Baby” written by well known Critical Race Theory propagandist Ibram X. Kendi, and another animated show called “Q-Force” (Queer Force).
HBO Max recently canceled their "Gordita Chronicles" after only one season; the show based on a Dominican immigrant family heavily pushed leftist narratives of victim group status and depicted America as a racist and oppressive nation. No mention of the fact that millions of non-white people try to sneak into the US every year even though it is supposedly “bigoted.”
The examples of purged woke programming go on and on. This is a smart move by the entertainment media as audiences make it clear with their dollars and their viewership that they don't want to watch leftist garbage. However, is it too little too late?
Some companies like Disney have chosen to foolishly double down on woke content (after numerous box office failures) and others like Warner have lost a lot of good will from their customers. Corporations and marketing people have long sought to entice customers by researching what audiences want. But, the new model is to simply TELL customers what to buy, and shame audiences into compliance with a product if they don't like it. Since 2016 the strategy of media has been to ATTACK customers in response to criticism rather than listening and learning. This hasn't gone over well. Today these businesses are paying the price for their trespasses against the free market.
It is unlikely that they will be able to win back audiences anytime soon, if ever.
