The 3 camps of consumer revolt

The consumer revolt borne from Disney's mismanagement—in some cases deliberate subversion—of its IPs has had little to no effect on their business. Disney+ grew by 21.2 million subscribers in the last quarter of 2020 alone. Brand inertia is real. As Bradford C Walker writes:

Brands operate as cults and use cult psychology to attract and retain loyal paypigs who will eat the slop no matter how foul it tastes or how much they dislike it.

Disney's mismanagement continued in the first quarter of 2021 with the firing of Gina Carano from The Mandalorian. #CancelDisneyPlus trended for like a day, undoubtedly nicking Disney's subscriber count. But you need to make deep cuts to take down a giant. The consuming masses, ignorant of or ambivalent about Carano's firing, drowned out the justified outrage.

The rebellion, if you will, has been in full swing for 5 years. Naturally its inability to achieve tangible results has caused it to split into camps. They differ in end goal and strategy.

1. Agitate. Agitate against Disney's managerial incompetence until they get it right. This has become a drama in itself, framed as a pitched battle between IP purists and woke Pharisees, or a special forces siege against terrorists who took the IP hostage.
   
   I lurked in this camp until about 2 years ago, when I realized it had devolved into a tiresome, reactionary echo chamber that had effectively monetized clicks and outrage. To paraphrase Brian Niemeier, don't rely on someone who profits from a problem to fix it.


2. Rehabilitate. Stop buying Disney products, and encourage friends and family to boycott until Disney learns the error of its ways and comes around to respecting its fans again. This assumes, incorrectly, that corporations can't make a profit at the lower end of the demand curve. They can. Losses are only temporary as they scale back operations.
   
   The epidemic destroyed demand for Disney's movies and theme parks, two huge components of their business. They're a smaller company now after laying off 32,000 of their 223,000 employees. Even though they lost money in 2020, it was their second-best year in terms of revenue.


3. Obliterate. In my opinion, the only strategy that has a reasonable chance of success. Replace the baleful Mouse's products with newer, better products. While I have more respect for camp 2 than I have for camp 1, both of them are essentially consumer mentalities.
   
   This here is a competitor mentality. It's what all the indie authors and creators in the blogroll are striving for. It wasn't activism or boycotts that put buggy manufacturers out of business; it was Henry Ford. Ford risked failure in order to give consumers a choice. The choice didn't start with them; it started with him when he decided to take a risk.

All creativity is risk. You never know what will sell until you put it in front of people and let them choose.

So, if you have a creative bone in your body, give people a choice. If you're a consumer, know that you have a choice. You don't have to settle for corporate, ideologically driven, focus-grouped entertainment. There are artists out there who respect you. They can stretch your dollar further, too.

As always, let me know what you think in the comments. If you like sci-fi, check out my books Seeds of Calamity and Tendrils to the Moon. You can find extended previews for each here and here.