PlusHeart Issue #12: When brands get horny
What happens when brands try too hard to wear the skin of a real human?
I have a weird thing about the Overwatch League in that I struggle to find something authentic to connect to; the teams all feel very sterile, and the whole “local city” thing doesn’t do a lot for me. I guess it’s the consequence of not feeling particularly hooked by Overwatch as a whole: if I don’t like the game, the hype feels fake.
Personal feelings aside, Boston Uprising decided to reply to a tweet announcing a new Overwatch hero in a horny way:
I wanted to dissect this a little bit because I found the motivation to make this post interesting, and all the different things at play that led to it.
The principles
All brands are encouraged to be relatively progressive, especially if they’re part of Tier 1 esports. This goes doubly so for Tier 1 developer-operated esports, like the OWL is. The narrative of mass-market esports is one of inclusion and welcoming to any demographic, because at its core, esports wants to be seen as something approachable and acceptable to take part in.
The OWL has a code of conduct which has a section that says:
A Player, Team Manager or Owner may not engage in any activity or practice which (i) brings him or her into public disrepute, scandal or ridicule, or shocks or offends a portion or group of the public, or derogates from his or her public image, or (ii) is, or could reasonably be expected to be, detrimental to the image or reputation of, or result in public criticism of or reflect badly on, the Blizzard Group, the League Office, or any of their respective Representatives, the League, the other Teams or their respective sponsors or members, the Game or any other product or service of the Blizzard Group.
Besides that being one long sentence, it basically says “Hey, don’t make us or any teams look bad by association”, which arguably the Uprising’s tweet did; it objectifies the character down to her sexual characteristics, which is an ongoing issue with the inclusion/participation of female members of the community or players.
Whether you agree or disagree that that’s a punishable offense isn’t really the point of this newsletter: within the greater context of the OWL and top-tier esports, this isn’t something that’s acceptable, and goes against what brands have told us their principles are.
This type of tweet goes against brands’ activism, and leads to one of two conclusions:
So little thought was put into the tweet that values of inclusion aren’t codified at the company level. The person who made the tweet didn’t have the checks and balances in place to determine it as something inappropriate.
It did have the checks and balances to determine what the tweet would be received as, and the profit was determined to outweigh the negatives, showing a lack of principles.
So basically, pinkwashing. The Uprising wanted to be first to respond, or the highest reply (so they could be the first thing people saw when visiting the thread). Nothing else mattered.
LARPing as human
In general, when marketers figure out the vibe of their product, they break their audience down into segments based on the hypothetical profile of someone consuming them. For instance, an esports team like 100 Thieves might have divisions of economic status, or whether an audience member leans more into the fashion/culture side of their business, or the gaming side.
I mention this because this tweet was based on hitting a particular profile, and the Uprising didn’t consider it to conflict with another (or worse, they did, and didn’t care).
Profile A is The Hornyposter. These are people who are usually anonymous, post unfiltered thoughts or comments based on low consequence (they can just create another account), and generally aren’t afraid to let the world know they’re thirsty. They (optionally) are the “reply guys” to models, streamers or artists that express appreciation in blunt terms, and are going to tell them exactly what they think. They might resist or resent the “growing up” of nerd spaces: they just want to be “degens” for themselves.
They can also be posting the photos; this thirst-trapping becomes an extension of clout-seeking, the desire to express themselves in a taboo way, or the OnlyFans culture of commodifying themselves.
Profile B is the Progressive. These people are onboard with the brand’s activism and generally have a high amount of identity invested in their account; it might be under their real name and use their real picture. These are people who thrive on knowing they are making the moral choice of supporting a brand who is in turn doing morally good things; it allows them to use that as a currency.
The identity factor might be the thing that separates the two; I’ve seen more hornyposting from actual people in the last couple years, and this is probably what led the Uprising to think they could get away with it. “Progressive” as a profile here doesn’t necessarily mean “Prude”; it just means that they’re justifying their hornyposting behind “supporting creators” “gassing up friends’ self-esteem” or “being sexually liberated,” which can arguably be described as forward-thinking or morally correct things to do.
While the Uprising would never tweet something like this to human, physical models, they might drop vocab that’s juuuust safe enough to not seem like they’re perving: if a brand is “Yaasss Queen”-ing a teenage girl who posts a photo in their merchandise, you know what mood they’re trying to hit.
Basically, in this case, they flew too close to the sun. In an effort to sound authentic, or to “post like other people do”, their mask slipped a bit: it’s become clear that they are comfortable dropping their principles when it’s convenient.
The problem with donning a charade in order to build a brand is that you have to keep it up. If the company’s values aren’t really its values, it loses the connection that binds people who really care about those things.
Again, this is giving the Uprising the credit that this was something purposeful, rather than an honest “Ugh, don’t know what I was thinking.” I think giving that credit might be a bit far-fetched, but only for now.
The gamble
In talking to a friend about this about this, they mentioned:
"Sure, it’s funny when it’s you and your friends. But you and your friends aren’t doing it with ulterior motives. Brands are doing it for clout and relatability and it can never, ever be authentic."
I would agree with this, but also factoring in is the awareness and critical thinking a consumer has towards “knowing what they’re doing.” Instead of framing this as a “[brand] messed up” issue, I wanted to explore that maybe this was a hedging of bets: the Uprising knew that there were points to gain from hornyposting, and that it would outweigh the negatives.
I’ve written before about Twitter Dunking and how Wendy’s had a hand in defining the metagame for more abrasive responses or shit-talking in general; I think this might be a similar case where people managing these brands might be testing the waters in following what they see as newer trends.
Capcom did it heavily during the lead-up to Resident Evil: Village and the hornyposting of its Lady Dimitrescu character, because if your character can become a meme, it can move a lot of units. This is from their official Resident Evil Twitter, noting "Your love for Lady Dimitrescu is loud and clear."
The “more real than real” arms race might’ve led us to a place where brands can have “their” own horny moments, “just like the rest of us.” I think this might be a step too far, because the novelty of the moment of a Twitter dunking is different than public hornyposting: the entertainment value is more culturally acceptable, and it’s easier to excuse something done for marketing clout when you find it valuable.
The novelty of the “this isn’t something I expected” wears off fast when a really primal human emotion is paraded by something faceless.
In a lot of cases, you probably don’t want to know if your favourite clothing brand is into feet.
Housekeeping
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Cheers for now.
Photo by Pixabay.