 |
|
|
|||||
When Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the Paris climate agreement in 2017, major companiesincluding tech giants Apple, Amazon, and Googlewere quick to criticize the move. Elon Musk stepped down from his role on the presidents advisory committees in response. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the decision was bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our childrens future at risk. What happened this year was very different: Trump ordered the U.S. to leave the Paris Agreement, again, on his first day in office. Zuckerberg, who was getting ready to co-host an inaugural ball for the president, didnt comment on the news. (In an unrelated Facebook post that came shortly after Trumps announcement about the Paris Agreement, Zuckerberg said he was Optimistic and celebrating.) Jeff Bezos, who previously criticized Trump and poured $10 billion into climate nonprofits, has now cozied up to the president. Other tech CEOs sat in support at the inauguration and donated millions to Trumps inaugural committee. Its one example of the business worlds reluctance to take any public stand against the current president. In the first term, everyone was fighting me, Trump said at a press conference in December when he talked about meeting with tech leaders. In this term, everyone wants to be my friend. Whether out of a fear of retribution and/or a belief that their companies could benefit directly from Trump, most business leaders are staying quiet. That’s true both for specific policy, like the Paris Agreement, and as the new administration veers toward authoritarianism. The muted responsenot to mention the fact that some executives are embracing Trump and voluntarily ditching programs like diversity, equity, and inclusionisnt dissimilar to what happened when Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. The parallels of corporate conformity and subservience are quite strong, says Peter Hayes, a professor emeritus of history at Northwestern University and the author of a new book, Profits & Persecution, about how companies responded to and collaborated with the Nazi party. When Hitler came to power in 1933, few took him seriously. As with Trump, people tended to underestimate the threat he posed. A lot of people thought Hitler was a blowhard, Hayes says. He never had been to university. He’d never held a government position. He’d never had a real job in his life, aside from running messages behind enemy lines in World War I. They just didn’t take him seriously. And the antisemitism, only the worst people took that seriouslythe people who believed in it took it totally seriously. Everybody else tended to sort of say, Well, you know, if it comes, it’ll stop short of the kind of people I know. At the time, business leaders liked some aspects of the Nazi platform, including its willingness to dismantle labor unions. Those who objected to Hitlers antisemitism thought that it could be moderated. (In the culture of the time, many Germans were antisemitic themselvesand had especially objectionable views about Jewish immigrants who had recently moved from Eastern Europebut didn’t think that their Jewish colleagues should lose their jobs or, later, their lives.) But businesses quickly became participants in the de-Jewification (“Entjudung”) of their corporate boards. Some of that was driven by fear, after seeing examples of what the Nazis were willing to do. In one case, the new government arrested the editors of a newspaper in Munich and appointed Nazi replacements who fired Jewish employees. The Nazis intimidated Bosch’s CEO by arresting one of his friends. A cigarette magnate was threatened with the takeover of his property and a trial on corruption charges if he didnt do what the government wanted. They always were willing to use force, but they treated it as a last resort towards the corporate world, Hayes says. Because you can intimidate ordinary middle-class or upper-class people pretty easily. And they did. People conform. After seeing what was happening to others, some companies started to practice anticipatory compliance, including Deutsche Bank, which fired Jewish members of its board before it was forced to. (In the long term, it didn’t help: Two of the bank’s directors were executed later in the war because they’d criticized Hitler.) As Hitlers regime progressed, the corporate compliance became more horrific: seizing Jewish-owned businesses and property, using forced Jewish labor, and providing, in the case of a chemical company called IG Farben, the poison gas used to kill millions of people in concentration camps. Some companies fully embraced Nazi propaganda; others were just afraid to resist. Now, as corporate leaders fail to stand up for things they’ve advocated for in the past, such as climate action, what happened in Germany is kind of a road map for what were experiencing, Hayes says. The country is at a pivotal moment. The White House is seizing power in unprecedented ways, such as freezing funding that was already appropriated by Congress. Trump broke the law to fire inspectors general at federal agencies. Under Elon Musk, who was never elected to any office, the so-called Department of Government Efficiency has started slashing jobs and funding at federal agencies, from the National Institutes of Health to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (The job cuts include accidentally firing workers responsible for nuclear security and researching the bird flu outbreak.) Musk and other Republicans have threatened judges with impeachment for blocking DOGE work that the judges say is illegal. When Musk sat in at a recent Cabinet meeting, Trump threatened to throw out anyone who objected to Musk. The White House is starting to control which journalists can be part of the press pool covering the president, something that used to happen through an independent committee. The list goes on. Hayes argues that American business leaders have caved to Trump even without the same type of intimidation that happened in Germany. But there has been some pressure: Trump threatened to jail Zuckerberg if he “interfered” with the 2024 election, for example, and then credited his own threats with forcing Zuckerberg to make changes to Meta, including ditching fact-checkers. Some of the pressure on CEOs, along with politicians and other public figures, now comes in other forms, including the fact that Trump can easily incite his online followers to violence. “We have on record Republican senators who’ve said to their Democratic colleagues, ‘I can’t speak up because I’m afraid for my family, Hayes says, adding that corporate leaders may also be afraid to talk because they’re worried about losing ther jobs. “This is the normal form of human self-protection that dictatorial and authoritarian forces totally exploit. Hayes points out other parallels to Nazi Germany. Hitler, like Trump, didn’t worry about long-term impacts to the economy. Hitler wanted Germany to be self-sufficient, and pushed for companies to make gasoline from coal, even though it was far more expensive than importing fuel from other countries. Similarly, Trump is trying to prop up fossil fuel companies in the U.S. at a time when the rest of the world is moving to electric vehiclesand EVs ultimately make more economic sense. “We’re giving up the future to serve the fossil fuel industry in the short term, and to try to make us an island in the world,” Hayes says. “It’s not going to work. The bill will come due. And as it starts to come due, everything that Trump has ever done indicates that he will blame someone else. And that’s when this government will become truly dangerous.” In Germany, Hayes says, the first year of Hitler’s rule was the critical moment that businesses could have made different choices. In theory, it’s not too late for companiesalong with the rest of societyto become more vocal now. Hayes, however, doesn’t believe that salvation is likely to come from the corporate sector, warning, “Don’t expect them to stand up to this.
Category:
E-Commerce
For filmmakers with a fondness for certain fonts, using them frequently enough in their work can turn typography into a sort of signature. See the typeface in a film, and you know exactly who the director is. Wes Anderson has an obsession with Futura, while John Carpenter set his film credits in Albertus, a formal serif. Papyrus is now synonymous with James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, and more than 40 of Woody Allen’s films use Windsor. For director Sean Baker, whose comedy-drama Anora won the 2025 Oscar for Best Picture and netted him the Academy Award for Best Director, his font of choice is the tall, narrow, decorative Aguafina Script. Created by type designers Alejandro Paul and Angel Koziupa of the Argentinean type foundry Sudtipos, Aguafina Script is described as semi-formal and eye-catching with characters that flow into each other, perfect for product packaging, glossy magazines, and book covers. Turns out it also works well for movie posters and title sequences, as Baker has proven for more than a decade now with his various projects. [Images: IMDB] Baker told the streaming platform Mubi last year that he first selected Aguafina Script for the title sequence of 2015’s Tangerine, about a transgender sex worker (a film that was shot entirely on iPhones), because he was looking for something that was stylistically interesting and because it subverted the grittiness of the subject matter. It is saying that there is an elegance to this production in the way were presenting the subject matter, he said. After realizing the font could serve the same purpose for 2017’s The Florida Project (about a girl and her single mother who live in a motel near Disney World), he said, If I continue this it could eventually become something that people connect withand connect with my films [the way Carpenter’s and Allen’s fonts did with theirs]. Now when you see those fonts, you think of those filmmakers and their films, said Baker, who utilized Aguafina Script through to the movie posters too. I like to have consistency between my advertising material and the actual credits. By weaving it into the visual identity of his films, including a recently minted Oscar winner, Baker has made Aguafina Script his own, and shown how type can be used to challenge viewers’ preconceived notions.
Category:
E-Commerce
When Netflix was finally ready to bring back its massive international hit TV series Squid Game for Season 2 after a three-year hiatus, it had a unique marketing challenge: remind people why they fell in love with a Korean action drama that revolves around a murderous contest. Approximately 39 months had passed since the debut of Squid Game took the world by storm with its coordinated green tracksuits, Pink Guards, and twisted takes on childrens games. The first season exploded to the surprise of everyone, becoming a global pop culture sensation. Back in 2021, Netflix marketing outside Asia was largely reactive to what audiences were excited about. This time, there were years of anticipation. Marian Lee, chief marketing officer at Netflix, says there was an excitement internally to re-create that phenomenon, but also a ton of pressure on her teams. Convincing people to come back to watch the second season is an entirely different proposition than being surprised and having some fun with it. [Photo: Netflix] What came next was a worldwide full-court press of entertainment marketing. Pink Guards were deployed at events, activations, and press appearances around the planet. The Season 2 campaign kicked off at the Paris Olympics. Pink Guards popped up at Sydney Harbor and Bondi Beach, the canals of Venice, Bangkoks Chao Phraya river, Saudi Arabias AlUla, and Beco do Batman in So Paulo. Fans played Red Light, Green Light live under the Pink Guards watchful eyes in Los Angeles, Jakarta, and Warsaw. As of February 14, Season 2 had 14.25 billion owned social impressions, eclipsing Netflixs biggest Instagram and TikTok posts ever. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Netflix Australia & NZ (@netflixanz) As a result, Squid Game Season 2 captured the most premiere-week views of any Netflix show in history. It spent eight consecutive weeks in the Netflix Global Top 10, amassing 185.2 million views in that time, and quickly became the streamers third-most-popular show of all time, after Wednesday and Squid Game Season 1. The marketing strategy behind the shows second season is a case study in how to match and elevate fan-generated hypeand it offers a window into how Netflix operates as a global brand marketing organization. Jakarta [Photo: Netflix] Found in translation Squid Game is first and foremost a Korean show. That was the mantra, and that was the foundation from which Lee and Netflix approached the marketing of the show. We have teams in 40 markets around the world, and it would be very American for us to say, Okay, well, now that it’s the biggest show, we’re going to have our largest marketing and publicity teams in L.A. run the campaign, Lee says. It was very important for me that the Korea team retained the strategy for how global teams were going to execute against it. This was a major shift for the streamers most popular properties like Stranger Things, Wednesday, and Bridgerton, which are exported from the U.S. marketing organization to the rest of the world. Lee created a global task force to connect major markets with the Korean team. There were translators in every meeting, even though everyone spoke English, to make sure any cultural nuances werent overlooked. Sao Paulo [Photo: Netflix] Lee spent the better part of two years cultivating and setting up the relationships between the Korean team and other major markets, in order for the rollout of Season 2and now the forthcoming Season 3to be as strong as possible. The coordination wasnt to make sure everyone followed the same playbook, but for the Korean team to really set the creative strategy and then the other marketing teams to take that and figure out the best way to express it in their markets. Creative strategies and creative platforms is the starting point, where everything emanates from, but where you can deviate across markets is in partnerships, or media placements and things like that, Lee says. So it was really important for us to spend a lot of time arguing and debating about that creative start point. One debate was around the theme of choice in the second season, represented by a voting system that allowed players to choose to stay or leave after each game. The Korean marketing team felt that was the center pointthat moral choice. Yet it wasnt resonating with the other teams. It’s important that when you’re dealing with different cultures and different languages, you have to find a creative start point that is literally so simple that any agency can run with it, Lee explains. London [Photo: Netflix] This translated into the idea of choosing to participate being a major part in all the live experienes across markets. Runners in tracksuits raced up the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Brazilian fans competed in Squid Game-themed competitions. The brand threw a Squid Game-themed rave in London. The nice thing about Netflix is that you can have a center creative strategy, but every market is going to have different flavors of how they activate with fans, Lee says. Paris [Photo: Netflix] Playing the brand game When Season 1 of Squid Game dropped in 2021, there were no international brand partners or collaborations. And yet Vans slip-on sneakers sales increased almost 8,000%. Duolingo saw a 40% increase in Korean language learners. For Season 2, with plenty of lead time, Netflix lined up a laundry list of brand partners, including Puma for those green tracksuits, Call of Duty, Kia, limited-edition Crocs, Duolingo, and more. But just like the creative strategy, Lee says local markets were in charge of what brand collabs would work best for their audiences. This is a global show, so you really could have global partners, but we also asked all the teams, Who are important partners in your market? says Lee. The result was a mix of brands that wouldnt normally be attached to a single property. In food alone, it was McDonalds in Australia, Burger King in France, Domino’s in the U.S., and Carl’s Jr. in Mexico. KFC Spain sold more than 400,000 units from its exclusive Squid Game menu and brought in more than $4 million in sales during its four-week runits most successful activation ever. We just said, Okay, what really matters for your market? Make sure you’re doing the most creative and the most fun way to engage with your fans. And I think that really worked, Lee says. Netflix announced last month that Season 3 will launch in June, about six months after Season 2. Lee says this allows both the streamer and brand partners to better bridge that relatively short gap. That short window is amazing for riding high off of Season 2 straight into Season 3 without wasting media dollars. We can just keep activating and engaging fans now through creative social, Lee explains. Beyond that, the brand will keep momentum going with live experiences in Australia, New York City, and Seoul, as well as a video game on its platform. Warsaw [Photo: Netflix] Fans lead the way The biggest insight that helped Netflix’s Squid Game marketing strategy is one Lee says has already helped other shows and properties. Lees teams work to find the parts of a show fans gravitate to most, then create content, experiences, brand partnerships, and more around that. Focus on the fans and really start organically, that is always the recipe for success for Netflix, she says. For Squid Game Season 2, it was iconography like the tracksuits and Pink Guards, combined with the desire to participate in some (nonlethal!) version of the games. The start point for Wednesday will be different than a comedy with Amy Schumer, Lee says. But I really think that the fans tell you what they want to see more of.
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||