Another journal

What I think is particularly telling is that I only know about the Stranger Things “activation” at Target because I have to read a press release dump site for work. Even taking Target and every bad move they’ve made this year out of the equation, you’d think that there was somebody left who cared about Stranger Things. Or, at least nostalgic nerdy Jansports (which look like they’re light edits to their “Cool Student” pack, bless).

Like yeah, if I search around the web about it, then various places who dress up press releases have done their duty and that’s about it. No social buzz of note, which feels like someone placing Chekov’s gun on the table.

Taking a look at the numbers and the season 5 teaser got 23 million views, released some two months ago.That’s no mean feat. Fallout season 2’s trailer, which landed a month ago, only has 3.6m.

Folks clearly care about Stranger Things to some degree, and I’m sure that when the final season drops–one piece at a time (Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve, dramatically)–they will get lots of numbers from folks with Netflix subscriptions. I mean, I also turn my light switch on all the time without really taking in that I’m doing it.

And that’s not to be dismissive of the show! It’s just that it’s an extremely easy show for a lot of folks to watch (maybe not content-wise, but access-wise). It’s not hard to be a fan of a heavily-pushed show when it drops on a streamer that to most folks is as basic a utility as their gas or power, but that isn’t really indicative of a thirsty fandom that can support 150 (!) new products.

Oh, did I not mention? This display, which looks like it’s the size of one of Target’s smaller holiday setups (think Easter candy, not Halloween), which will be taking up a notable footprint that might bite into the holiday displays (remember, s5 is spread across the whole of the Christmas holiday, pre and post), is to sell 150 new products.

This is a big commit, like, this is a year? or more of setting up and getting sign-offs and coordinating with other brands (the inevitable Funko, etc). The deal had to have been inked, um, before Target’s cultural and actual stock took a dump. Even with only half the products as Target exclusives, that’s a lot of work. Yet! This whole thing launches on October 5th and the press release just dropped. From experience, minimal promotional lead up indicates somebody isn’t feeling like a project is going to go well. But what do I know, I just watch trends and make judgements on them based on years of observation. Maybe this weekend, when all those people (lol) are shopping Target we’ll see some more chatter about it.

Though, when school shopping isn’t enough to inject some pep into your profit step then will a glut of products for a show that is ending do it? The whole deal probably made perfect sense a year ago. People watch Stranger Things from habit, they shop at Target from habit. They will wander into the stores, absently thinking about picking up yoghurt, enter The Daze that apparently people get into, and find themselves at checkout with a handful of products that made their brain ting, plus some bubble water, little cheeses and the yogurt they came in to pick up.

It’s a plan reliant on folks going with the flow. But that flow got fucked when Target was a fool. Fascinatingly, Netflix never seems to be hit with similar fluctuations no matter who calls for it, because people consider it a kind of utility and that makes it invisible, impenetrable. They also aren’t the ones who will suffer much if this brand hookup falls through and we are seeing Stranger Things products littering the shelves into spring. They’re not the ones who decided to dedicate a notable quantity of shelf space to it.