like the title?
i thought i’d try to write like breitbart writers do… like an arrogant child…
So!
It turns out Breitbart is throwing a temper tantrum because large advertisers are directing ad agencies to pull their ads from its site.
Aside: If you don’t know what Breitbart is… it’s an online publication originally run by Andrew Breitbart (before his death in 2012) that offers articles from a “conservative” or “alt-right” perspective.
Ever since 2012 (from what I’ve seen) Breitbart has become more and more extreme in its views and offered less and less in terms of content quality.
As a response to this ad pulling, Breitbart has apparently been posting critical articles of the advertisers in question…
An agency executive, under condition of anonymity, said that Breitbart’s move is tantamount to shakedown — and it will end up warning off future advertisers.
“It sets a horrible precedent and is a huge deterrent to future advertisers,” this person said. “They are essentially extorting their advertisers with the threat of boycott and bad press if you reduce your budget or decide to pull your ads.”
Kellogg isn’t the only one to drop Breitbart from its advertising rotation — last week, Digiday reported that a number of brands, including AllState, Modcloth, Nest and SoFi have blacklisted the website, which many critics say promotes hate speech, under pressure in social media.
Source: http://digiday.com/brands/breitbart-calls-boycott-kelloggs-brand-pulls-advertising/
So instead of coming to terms with the fact that an advertiser might not want to be associated with their content and moving on… they basically want to blackmail, or I guess harass, advertisers into staying? Or maybe it’s some kind of vindictive revenge against “the cucks”? I don’t know…
But it sounds like a great business plan to me. *sarcasm*
The “boycotts”…
The site is also posting news articles alongside the boycott post saying that Kellogg’s is complicit in child labor abuses, citing an Amnesty International report on companies that use palm oil made on plantations overseas. Breitbart had never previously expressed concerns over where Kellogg’s got its palm oil.
‘nuh uh you’re the worser!!!’ the child screamed as the parent told them they weren’t getting pocket-money this week because of their poor behavior…
I mean honestly… how childish can you get.
I can’t imagine this is going to make the general public more interested in or sympathetic towards Breitbart. I just really doubt the public is more sympathetic to a place that writes really shitty articles than they are to their Rice Krispies.
One says shitty things the other is part of my breakfast… hmmm… who to listen to… who… to… listen… to.
The business…
This should go to show you that threats to artist’s businesses are more existential than people think. People think of threats as a direct competitor’s new website, a store opening up across the street, or maybe as a hurricane that floods your business leaving you in financial ruin.
Business threats have evolved though… they are not the standard crap you’ll find in business textbooks. Take the example of Shameless China…
Shameless China was a blog run by Laura Lian where she wrote satirical / funny articles concerning Chinese culture. She was actually successful enough that she quit her job to run the blog full-time.
But then China’s censors came knocking on her digital door. Her blog was shut down. Her business was destroyed. There’s not much for her to do about it. All she could do was hope that some minor foreign media coverage would get her followers back (so far she’s gotten some back, not all).
Shameless China‘s threat to their business? Its own content.
For Breitbart, for any media company, they could be facing a very similar situation. Breitbart, Bloomberg, myself… we all rely on advertising revenue to support our writing / work.
Sometimes that writing does not make other people happy. Sometimes you say things people don’t want to hear, write words they don’t want to read, and do things they don’t like. For example, you might spray paint a dick on a bridge and now everybody hates you. That’s life.
As you can see… hopefully I’m making sense… yeah…
Your own content can work against you because you will occasionally bother people. People’s responses may be to boycott you, pull their advertising money, call you a cuck, whatever.
So if you do happen to be an artist, your content is a threat to your own business and you need to be aware of that. Because life happens and one minute you have money and the next you don’t because somebody somewhere flipped a digital switch and now you are screwed.