In making his cheap and easy movie post, the beleaguered prime minister knew he could build brand while at the same time highlighting the negative brand attributes of his opponents.
Published Aug 10, 2023 • 3 minute read
The Grove’s Theater marquee announced the opening of the “Barbie” movie in Los Angeles on July 20, 2023. In Canada, the prime minister wasted little time letting everyone know on social media that he was seeing it with his son. Photo by VALERIE MACON /AFP via Getty Images
Looking down the long list of issues facing the country right now, where do you think the prime minister’s taste in movies ranks?
Given that his cinematic preferences can’t build homes, solve crime, or reduce gas or grocery bills, the answer is “not high.” Or, at least, that’s where it ought to rank. So why has Justin Trudeau’s tweet about going to the film “Barbie” with his eldest son generated 42 million views and tens of thousands of responses on X (the new name for Twitter), many of them horrible?
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One possible answer is that it’s “silly season” and there’s little else to talk about in official Ottawa. Another is that Barbie is a genuine global blockbuster lots of people are talking about, one with a political message about the patriarchy wrapped into its bright pink-coloured candy exterior, to boot. But the correct answer is Trudeau’s tweet is perfect grist for the Rorschach mill called “social media.” Neither the tweet, nor the disproportionate reaction it provoked, were accidents.
Apologies for bringing what appears to be Kremlinology to a simple tweet, but the episode is highly instructive of the complete mess we now find ourselves in. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, but sometimes it’s an example of complete collapse. In the case of the Barbie tweet, the collapse of our information economy.
Let’s count the ways.
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First, there are the mechanics. With a simple photo and a few words of text published to his own media platform, Trudeau was able to create a conversation only one prime minister before his time could have created; without social media, Trudeau would have been stuck talking about the (bad) news of the day. Before social media, what the prime minister went to see at the cinema wouldn’t have surfaced in the public domain, bar maybe an item in a print diary column. Certainly no hard-news reporter or editor would have deemed it fit for their paper or broadcast.
And then the algorithms got to work. Seeing the early “engagement” with the prime minister’s tweet — both positive and negative — X-Twitter’s distribution algos shipped the prime minister’s tweet far and wide, ensuring more reaction (and ad dollars for the platform). That’s how the tweet came to the attention of people such as Piers Morgan, a British former newspaper publisher and television presenter stroke provocateur, who quoted the tweet and declared to his 8.5 million followers how happy he was not to be Canadian. This was, in turn, beamed back into the feeds of Canadians, who weren’t shy about letting Morgan know they were fine with him not being Canadian. Suddenly, the chattering classes were chattering about Barbie and slotting it into their priors about their opponents.
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Meanwhile, from the smouldering ruin of his premiership, Trudeau was laughing. He knew that dressing in pink and going to a movie with a feminist message with his eldest son would excite his supporters (“yay feminism” and “aww, what a dad”) and enrage his detractors. And enrage he did. To read the quotes and replies to his tweet is to take a bath in toxic sludge, none of which needs to be repeated here, although the prime minister probably wouldn’t mind if I did. He wants people to see the kind of demented reaction he provokes amongst opponents. That’s all he’s got left.
In making his cheap and easy post, Trudeau knew he could brand build while at the same time highlighting the negative brand attributes of his opposition. And if you’re the prime minister — 10 points behind Pierre Poilievre in the polls — you need to find ways to remind people why the other guy is a bit naff. Enter the online trolls. And even if those trolls don’t overtly support Poilievre, Team Liberal is going to imply they do (chances are, in a straight choice between Trudeau and Poilievre, they do).
Welcome to the modern world we live in. Barbie might have her dream house but in the real world, we’re living in digs that are increasingly expensive, increasingly threadbare, and dangerously unfit for purpose.
Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
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