#fandom manipulation

Everybody watch this. This, this, and this again.

i refer to this published ask as 'fic' because it's an anon that is supposedly insider-y parroting official talking points and diminishing louis' own goals (while dragging jay into it) while simultaneously victimizing harry.

To be frank, I was looking forward to both Louis’ and Harry’s solo careers, I considered myself a Larrie until 2019, and Harry was my fav in 2017 (for all those accusing me of every -ism under the sun, Harry had the same team in 2017).

But @dearly, @adifferentkindofson, @waitingforthatday and others who expressed any misgivings about solo Harry were viciously attacked.

I’m so glad that @dearly has those screenshots, and I must say they bring back some vividly shocking memories.

Big Larrie blogs were invested in their version of the future. As a mutual said,

“you’re making things worse for every LGBT artist (by refusing to buy harry’s album)” was a particularly lovely guilt trip.

let’s go back in time to 2017, selected posts because so many blogs are private now...

and never forget the below-- the music industry doesn’t give second chances. except if it’s louis, i guess, it’s okay to not support him bc it’s just a hobby and they share a bank account.

The fact that “plants” can be placed into fandom to make the Harrie stan culture slightly less toxic, to lessen bullying of other fans and other boys even a tiny bit, and yet here’s another TPTK sweatshirt to purchase in a different color, but keep up with the good work, guys! Bury those m*f*.

Creepy spying and manipulation are par for the course, and we expect it, but the effort to use other fans to destroy Harry’s competition— at the expense of exacerbating those fans’ mental health issues (while Harry tweets, “Go see your therapist, I’ll wait.”) is the height of hypocrisy. Harry knows. He condones. He is the artist, he profits from it, he is responsible. Maybe he was naive, but the article clearly states that Harry is aware of details of the project and has ample input. He knows how this works.

As much time as the marketing team put into sprinkling crumbs across the internet, Columbia director of Digital Marketing John Salcedo says they spent almost as many hours watching and listening to how fans were reacting and revealing tidbits, working in real time and pivoting the treasure hunt based on what the amateur detectives dug up. "When they found [something] we adjusted and/or leaned on it to make sure that they could further go down the rabbit hole," says Salcedo.

The "real-time marketing" meant that the plan shifted every day, with the team working around-the-clock to read comments, dig into chat rooms, Reddit and elaborate Twitter threads filled with clues they'd planted and some they hadn't in order to see where the audience was going so they could toss seeds in the right places.