This media Blog addresses the idea of "pop" and the idea that movie makers and other entertainment sources use blood and guts to attract audiences. I spend a good amount of time on YouTube, a site used by younger people where content creators can get paid with revenue generated from ads that play at the start of videos. YouTube has skips after about five seconds or so so the advertiser has to hook their audience fast. Again, because the audience is young, advertisers on YouTube often try and use pop to hold their audience which does not generally want to wait until the ad is done. This is exemplified in the case of Alien the Covenant, a movie that has had incessant ads on YouTube for the last month or so.
In the first 5 seconds of this trailer, there are people being possessed or taken over, convulsing and making grotesque noises. If you are unable to resist the first 5 seconds of pop, then you get to witness more and more of people getting attacked by aliens and getting taken over in addition to some jumpscares. This is extremely stereotypical pop in that in the beginning, they hook you with blood and guts so that we are riveted and the thought of hitting the skip button doesn't even cross our minds. Pop uses blood and guts almost exclusively to hook us fast, something that is shown here. Furthermore, there is pop in the form of sex towards the end when a couple is in the shower, of course ending in true alien style with one being torn inside out by the alien. Because of the pop being shown, we can also clearly see that these people are marketing to teens who would easily fall for the blood and sex shown.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of the pop in this case. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and love anything interplanetary as it really does capture my imagination, but the excessive blood really puts out that child-like wonder that makes sci-fi so appealing to me. Part of why I love sci-fi so much is that it seems almost real to me. Its basis in science makes it seem like a world just beyond our horizons, something that is actually achievable in my lifetime, and the idea of the fantastical creature Alien makes sci-fi seem less real to me.
In general, I'm not particularly interested in excessive blood being shown or the unnatural marriage between blood and sex. Those kinds of pop just don't appeal to me. Never have been a fan of horror or super sexualized movies or TV shows. Humor is where it is at for me and pop in the form of humor will get me hook line and sinker. If someone can get me to laugh, they have my attention and I might give up a bit of my time to see what they have to say or sell me. Any other kind of pop though, I'm out.
Trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0VW6sg50Pk
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