If there’s one thing we’ve learned about streaming services this past year, its that they deal with the same PR miracles and nightmares that regular networks do. Netflix landed in hot water last September with the release of Cuties. Days after Cuties came out and #CancelNetflix was all in the rage on Twitter, prompting thousands of subscribers to cancel their Netflix account. But it wasn’t just Cuties that turned people off – others were simply not happy with the grotesque movie and TV options Netflix was offering this year.
Even streaming giants like Netflix get their share of PR nightmares that send audiences running to the hills. Its stories like this that make you realize that PR nightmares can happen for any trending streaming service, even if they become popular within months.
One such streaming service that is dealing with a familiar PR nightmare of their own is Disney+
Gina Carano, the actress who played Rebel Alliance soldier Cara Dune in The Mandalorian, was let go from the series last week. It was due to a controversial post on Instagram pertaining to the Holocaust. A few days later, the #CancelDisneyPlus hashtag started trending on Twitter. People all across social media started canceling their Disney+ subscription and flocking to a new service to use.
The #CancelDisneyPlus hashtag echoes similar elements in the recent story of #CancelNetflix. Both PR nightmares have catchy hashtags for audiences to remember. Not only do they prompt people to cancel these subscriptions, but they also urge them to find better content elsewhere. Nevertheless, both #CancelDisneyPlus and #CancelNetflix have audiences distancing far away from these popular streaming services.
With that, the #CancelDisneyPlus PR nightmare is already doing damage to Disney+. It hasn’t been a whole year since Disney+ launched and audiences are already cutting it out of their digital library. Letting Gina Carano go only made things worse for Disney+ and its audience.
This is the kind of thing that audiences did not sign up for. The best thing they will do is simply #CanelStreamgingServices all together.
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