Removing complaining, bashing and other negativity from the wiki

I've actually started a cleanup thread for NPWLC so you're welcome to bring up any issues on that page over there.

EDIT: Topper, in response to complaining on The Problem with Licensed Games.

Edited by SpongeBat1 on May 31st 2023 at 3:39:07 AM

Misaimed Marketing has a subpage devoted to poorly-though-out Spongebob merch. Most of it fits the trope, and with little complaining, but this one seems inflammatory:

• There are SpongeBob SquarePants products aimed towards babies and toddlers, like this potty training seat and this baby romper. Mind you, SpongeBob is rated TV-Y7, meaning it contains elements that may be considered inappropriate for very little kids. Not to mention that SpongeBob might harm a preschooler's brain! And yet the products still sell: this review states that their 2-year-old son thinks that SpongeBob is better than Elmo because Elmo's a "baby show".

First off, the "might hurt a preschooler's brain" links to an article saying that Spongebob does not actually harm kid's brains, and that the study that claimed so was flawed and unscientific. The entry itself also says that the merch sells well with young children. Yet the Spongebob subpage seems to really love complaining about baby merch for Spongebob, like these entries a little lower down:

• As with all Nickelodeon networks, promos for the show air on Nick Jr. in between shows, which means a show Nickelodeon admits is not for kids under 7 has promos that air on a preschool channel.
• Even with Nick's insistence, new toddler merchandise still gets made. Fisher-Price's Imaginext line and Leap Frog make SpongeBob toys and games that are for children ages 4-7 and are placed next to Dora the Explorer and Thomas & Friends toys at toy stores. One such piece of merch is a card for children celebrating their fourth birthday.
• Even crazier is that Mattel produced SpongeBob toys under the Fisher-Price name in the mid-2000's. Because of this, some retailers advertised the toys as being for preschoolers◊.

The emphasis is the first two entries is not mine-the person who wrote it really seems to think that letting young kids watch Spongebob is worthy of exaggerated horror. In fact, a decent portion of the page is dedicated to complaining about Spongebob being marketed to babies-while I know Spongebob is meant for kids older than 6, I don't know if it's "crazy", as the third entry says, to imagine Spongebob on baby toys.

Yeah there isn't really anything wrong with SpongeBob being on baby/preschooler merch. There have definitely been other properties on baby/preschooler merch that aren't for babies or preschoolers either, and SpongeBob is no different.

I'd say cut for now, unless a compelling argument is made otherwise.

There are a few works where I double-take at the thought of preschool-age merchandise for them existing. Spongebob is not one of them. I'm also pro-removal.

This is what I was thinking as I read through that entry, especially since the main Misaimed Marketing page mentions children's products based on Rambo, Stranger Things, and other properties definitely NOT meant for kids. I actually left out most of the Spongebob subpage because most of it is about baby products, the ones I cited in the last post were just the most complainy ones. If you're interested, these are all the entries on the page complaining about preschoolers watching it (including the ones from the last post):

The whole thing feels weirdly complainy (not to mention that I actually had that Leapfrog book as a little kid and loved it lol). Especially next to legitimate examples of inappropriate marketing, such as fish sticks or fishing poles themed around the characters. The only baby merch examples I think actually fit are the baby wipes, rectal thermometers, and potty chair-not because they're for babies, but because they're gross and it's weird to have a lovable cartoon character on them. Thoughts?

I feel like the Spongebob infant merch is a total nonissue and don't see how it's Misaimed Marketing, so I kinda wanna gut it

I'l go cut it right now then.

I replaced the Kinnikuman entry with Janky's rewrite.

Speaking of Misaimed Marketing, I feel like that trope does have a lot of misuse:

• It's not like the Toy Story franchise isn't suited for merchandising (far from it, in fact), but one particular toy, of the telephone character in the third movie, has a speech function... and it sounds a bit odd to have a toy designed for 3-year-olds say lines like "I've been here for years, they'll never break me!" in a Film Noir style accent. If one is familiar with the toy, the lines "I've been here for years!" (the original toy is over 40 years old) and "They'll never break me!" (it was made out of wood and sturdy plastic, and is virtually unbreakable) are a lot funnier.
  The toy is quoting the movie though, it's not misaimed since it is exactly what is contained in the movie

• While the Precious Moments line is no stranger to figures based on films, mostly from Disney-owned properties, there's the rather headscratching set of◊ The Breakfast Club figurines. While films like Grease and The Princess Bride have their own questionable moments, they were at least more consistently family-friendly rather than the rather raunchy R-rated high school comedy. Presumably they're intended for fans of '80s films that also happen to collect Precious Moments figures.
  This isn't misaimed since Precious Moments are not aimed at children, since they are very fragile and could break easily.

• The jewelry-chain Rogers and Holland sold a Twilight-themed engagement ring as a tie-in with Breaking Dawn, Part 1.
  idk how this is misaimed, it's again based on the movie so thus it is accurate.

• For some time, GSN kept promoting its revival of Chain Reaction as being "from the producers of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" when about the only other thing the two shows had in common was the Game Show genre.
  idk how this is misaimed, its perfectly reasonable to assume that fans of one game show would like another, despite the many differences between them.

• Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash once appeared at a meet-and-greet in Toronto for infants at "The Babytime Show".
  The show is still TV-Y rated, there is nothing wrong with this

Yeah, send all of those to the slaughter.

Yeah, merchandise of family media only qualifies as Misaimed Marketing if it is truly misguided, like the entry I added a while back for the cuddly plushies bundled with a DVD containing one of the most devastating episodes of a children's series ever made and nothing else or the Lotso and Frollo meet-and-greets at Disney Parks. SpongeBob and My Little Pony are still children's shows, no matter how much fans may act like this isn't the case. And the phone indeed says that in the actual movie.

Edited by AlmightyKingPrawn on Jun 1st 2023 at 7:01:45 AM

MLP:FiM is rated C in English Canada where the event was held (equivalent to TV-Y) and therefore the example should be removed.

Edited by Nen_desharu on Jun 1st 2023 at 10:05:13 AM

From Future Society, Present Values's video games folder:

This is very prevalent in Mass Effect and it shows. From how the first few games deal with homosexuality, non-white characters to even the way the entire human society functions makes it seems very dated to the mid 2000s to early 2010s.

This example is incredibly complainy and borderline-zero context. Now, its been a while since I have played any Mass Effect game and I will not deny that several things in the original trilogy have not aged well(the first game's use of Discount Lesbians comes to mind) but even then I believe that the example needs to be rewritten to add more context and be less hostile(if not deleted all together).

Thoughts?

i'm not too familiar with Mass Effect, but it's complainy and low context AND pretty general to boot.

I have to notice that Misaimed Marketing is currently on the TRS Queue because I did a wick check and noticed it's very misused and attracts complaining and stuff.

As the person who brought that up, I thought there was already consensus to cut it on the grounds that it's gibberish.

Edited by nrjxll on Jun 2nd 2023 at 1:05:34 PM

Alright then.

Bringing these up from Epileptic Flashing Lights, all of them from the Professional Wrestling section. These definitely need a re-write to have a more neutral tone. The first two entries include a bit of WrestleCrap-level snark, plus some needless gushing and conversational tone (and the latter has a violation of Examples Are Not Recent) which need to go. The third might need a fine-tuning to match later changes to Cena's tron video.

• The WWF Signature during the Attitude Era is nicknamed the "seizure inducing WWF logo" for a reason. What was it with the WWF wanting everyone to get epilepsy during that era? Maybe because the era was so awesome that people just didn't care.
• Speaking of Raw milestones, the recent 20th Anniversary of RAW and the recap of the intros to Raw made us all remember (or just now realize, depending on how you saw it) how seizure inducing some of the WWE's show intros were back in the Attitude era. Raw's "Move It To The Music" especially, when the WWE just LOVED covering every frame with flashing strobe lights and forever changing angles and scenes.
• White lights flash very rapidly on the entrance stage whenever John Cena comes out to his theme. Cena usually says something to the camera before coming off the stage and running to the ring, which usually means having to see a few more seconds of the effect. This was made somewhat worse after Raw 1000. The WWE debuted a new set that featured circular pillars with lights every 10 feet or so that can also strobe when they want them to, which they "want them to" during Cena's entrance. And when Cena says his spiel to the camera, the camera is usually somehow pointing straight towards one of the strobe lights.

Bringing these up from Popular with Furries. This trope seems to be meant only for positive audience reactions, not negative or "mixed" ones. The last one in particular seems like misuse, because YMMV tropes can't be played with (I'm thinking it could be moved to and merged with that episode's entry on Subculture of the Week).

• The wolf-based series of Alpha and Omega films are quite popular with furries. On the opposing side, it is also very controversial with furries (mostly wolf ones) due to the character designs and biological inaccuracy.
• Felidae is a dark and gritty Film Noir film which just happens to star Partially Civilized Animal cats. The contrast confuses or creeps out many, but furries take to it just fine.
• Inverted with the CSI episode "Fur and Loathing", which is widely hated by furries for popularizing some of the most negative stereotypes of their fandom. The episode depicts furries as sexual fetishists or as delusional people who genuinely believe they are animals.

The CSI entry can be outright cut, since Popular with Furries is YMMV and you can't play with a YMMV trope.

And the first two seem fine, describing some negative opinions in an objective manner while still focusing on the crux of the item.

Auto-Tune has this quote, which is not only complainy, but I don't think it adds anything:

Michael K.: Because the music industry is run by the Illuminati and they get off on hearing our blood-curdled screams as our eardrums melt, they paired Iggy Azalea with Brit Brit Spears for a new song called “Pretty Messy” “Pretty Girls”. The song hasn’t been released yet, but I’m guessing it’ll sort of sound like an auto-tuned chipmunk exorcism in a warehouse full of ponies Riverdancing on Casio keyboards.

Where is that quote from? That trope has another quote already and there is no Quotes page...

It's in the example section, Britney Spears example.

Oh god then that should definitely go.