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Total sidebar... Who would have thought that Tom Hiddleston's Loki would have gotten so popular?

fartcannon 5y ago
We just had an article on the front page about the power of PR. It's so powerful that you should basically doubt any Disney products grass roots popularity as it's likely the results of PR.
- the_doctah 5y ago
  Are you suggesting PR has convinced people that they like a character? Bizarre take. Like people can't form their own opinion or something? Disney now has the power to PR me into liking anything basically?
  - thundergolfer 5y ago
    Are you familiar with the pioneering early 20th century work of Edward Bernays?[1]. He founded the PR industry. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    Yeah, that's (unfortunately) exactly what I'm saying.
  - npteljes 5y ago
    I mean, that's the definition of PR. It's their job. And the longer you think that your opinion is your own, the better it works. Confidence tricks work the same way. But I'm not just defying you, you also have a point. PR can't make people like anything. The target audience is already in some state, they came from somewhere, want something, already have some preferences, can be described to being on some trends. What effective PR can do is take what they have, and align it to these states, trends, preferences. Like how it's said in the movies, hypnotics can't make you do something you don't want to do, or something that makes no sense to you. The "seeds" have to already be there for it to work. Now I'm not sure about hypnosis, but PR, propaganda, advertisement works this way. And this is in no way exclusive to Disney, or PR. It's natural to want others to do something for you. PR is just the current legal way to describe this effort.
    - fartcannon 5y ago
      Those seeds though, who planted them? :/
  - smsm42 5y ago
    Maybe not literally every person, but yes, enough for this to be a viable and successful strategy for making "successful" products.
viraptor 5y ago
I think it's a whole genre that was finally allowed into mainstream. For a long time we had very black/white view on the superheroes in movies. Only relatively recently Batman got a bit interesting, Star Wars had someone turn "bad", Ironman was a good jerk, Starlord... was a good jerk, Loki and Deadpool are pretty chaotic, now Sandman is soon coming out. We have a number of "that bad character had reasons" movies like Cruella. Those existed for ages in comic books, but I don't think mainstream / Disney would touch them.
- the_doctah 5y ago
  The term is anti-hero.
  - viraptor 5y ago
    I didn't want to say anti hero. It's true for many cases, but Batman has never been an anti-hero as such. (Neither has the Sandman character I guess?)
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - megameter 5y ago
      TVTropes uses "Cape" and "Cowl" to distinguish those kinds of heroes: Capes fly in for the photo op like Superman, while Cowls like a Zorro or Batman slink around with limited official support.
  - mafuy 5y ago
    It's just a faceted character.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
mkr-hn 5y ago
The character is dangerously adorable.
- eric4smith 5y ago
  Hahaha yes. That describes it quite nicely. Hiddleston did a good job portraying him. He's such a fine actor.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
quantified 5y ago
After the first Thor movie, myself and many more. After Thor: Ragnarok, it really seemed about right for him to break out. Very interesting character when played right, could have been another actor but Hiddleston has really made him his own.

We just had an article on the front page about the power of PR. It's so powerful that you should basically doubt any Disney products grass roots popularity as it's likely the results of PR.

the_doctah 5y ago
Are you suggesting PR has convinced people that they like a character? Bizarre take. Like people can't form their own opinion or something? Disney now has the power to PR me into liking anything basically?
- thundergolfer 5y ago
  Are you familiar with the pioneering early 20th century work of Edward Bernays?[1]. He founded the PR industry. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays
- fartcannon 5y ago
  Yeah, that's (unfortunately) exactly what I'm saying.
- npteljes 5y ago
  I mean, that's the definition of PR. It's their job. And the longer you think that your opinion is your own, the better it works. Confidence tricks work the same way. But I'm not just defying you, you also have a point. PR can't make people like anything. The target audience is already in some state, they came from somewhere, want something, already have some preferences, can be described to being on some trends. What effective PR can do is take what they have, and align it to these states, trends, preferences. Like how it's said in the movies, hypnotics can't make you do something you don't want to do, or something that makes no sense to you. The "seeds" have to already be there for it to work. Now I'm not sure about hypnosis, but PR, propaganda, advertisement works this way. And this is in no way exclusive to Disney, or PR. It's natural to want others to do something for you. PR is just the current legal way to describe this effort.
  - fartcannon 5y ago
    Those seeds though, who planted them? :/
- smsm42 5y ago
  Maybe not literally every person, but yes, enough for this to be a viable and successful strategy for making "successful" products.

viraptor 5y ago

I think it's a whole genre that was finally allowed into mainstream. For a long time we had very black/white view on the superheroes in movies. Only relatively recently Batman got a bit interesting, Star Wars had someone turn "bad", Ironman was a good jerk, Starlord... was a good jerk, Loki and Deadpool are pretty chaotic, now Sandman is soon coming out. We have a number of "that bad character had reasons" movies like Cruella. Those existed for ages in comic books, but I don't think mainstream / Disney would touch them.

the_doctah 5y ago
The term is anti-hero.
- viraptor 5y ago
  I didn't want to say anti hero. It's true for many cases, but Batman has never been an anti-hero as such. (Neither has the Sandman character I guess?)
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - megameter 5y ago
    TVTropes uses "Cape" and "Cowl" to distinguish those kinds of heroes: Capes fly in for the photo op like Superman, while Cowls like a Zorro or Batman slink around with limited official support.
- mafuy 5y ago
  It's just a faceted character.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

mkr-hn 5y ago

The character is dangerously adorable.

eric4smith 5y ago
Hahaha yes. That describes it quite nicely. Hiddleston did a good job portraying him. He's such a fine actor.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

quantified 5y ago

After the first Thor movie, myself and many more. After Thor: Ragnarok, it really seemed about right for him to break out. Very interesting character when played right, could have been another actor but Hiddleston has really made him his own.