Sweet Tooth is live on Netflix, but it comes with a bit of controversy after an advertising campaign didn’t go over well. Let’s take about the show, what happened, and why we think it was a huge mistake.
About Sweet Tooth
First, Sweet Tooth is like a lot of other shows these days in that it’s an adaptation of an existing property. In this case, the story was originally told in comics. Hulu was going to put the series out, but at some point during the process, it moved to Netflix.
The show’s about a group of animal/human hybrids that are feared, as people don’t know if they’re the cause of a virus, or the result. To us, that story hits a bit close to home these days, but apparently, it’s been getting somewhat favorable reviews.
The show centers mostly around Gus (Christian Convery), who is a deer/boy hybrid. He’s been living in hiding, thanks to the situation he and others like him are facing. However, circumstances send him on a search for the truth about his origin.
Sweet Tooth faces controversy
The show premiered earlier this month, and apparently, Netflix wanted to create a real buzz. We’re not sure yet how this move will affect the show long-term. However, the internet was abuzz with the advertising stunt around it.
Apparently, the streaming service bought a full-page ad for the show in USA Today. One that looked like the cover of the publication and was inserted over the real front page.
Website and YouTube channels like Clownfish TV jumped on the story. Most of the articles we’ve seen talk about this being an irresponsible move. Here’s why we agree this was a bad move.
Bad move, Sweet Tooth
Okay, it’s like the not the Sweet Tooth team that made this call. Much like the Cuties advertising, we’re guessing this was Netflix’s call, and we totally disagree with the move. And we question USA Today for selling such an ad.
Sure, they had the word “Advertisement” on it, but it was in small letters compared to the sensationalistic “headlines” that made up the advertisement. It’s not that we think most fell for it, or should have. Although, with such a small disclaimer, it probably made people look twice, and we don’t think that’s okay.
Journalism as a profession has been questioned for a long time. It goes way beyond the Fake News declarations over the past few years. For decades, there’s been an issue and this is not adding much to the reputation of the mainstream media to sell a wrap ad that looks like your own front page.
Especially since so many aren’t really covering a lot of recent developments and social media sites are sticking “fact checks” on any source that is trying to question and offer other perspectives, and journalists should always be presenting both sides in a story.
Journalists and major publications need to be proving their on the side of the truth and facts, not selling such a space to big companies.
Plus, multiple articles pointed out they’d violated their own policy with the ad. The most recent policy found and quoted online says making an ad that looks like the paper and its front page is a no-go.
So, what changed? And what might they do next time? It leaves a lot of interesting questions, but we hope any change ahead is for the better.
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