DD Driver Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 (edited) So disappointing to see this instagram post from @abtofficial (run by the dancers of ABT). It is an ABT principal dancing The Nutcracker's Clara with Cardi B's song: WAP overlaid. If you're lucky you don't know this song and its incredibly vulgar lyrics. https://www.google.com/search?q=cardi+b+wap+lyrics&oq=cardi+B+&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j46j0l5.12410j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 You can imagine, many of the people who follow this instagram account are young ballet fans - under 18. So inappropriate. Hopefully the post is removed before you read this thread! Edited September 21, 2020 by DD Driver add comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 Looking at the comments, quite a few are from horrified parents and others. Talk about a company shooting itself in the foot! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oncnp Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 39 minutes ago, Jan McNulty said: Talk about a company shooting itself in the foot! Financially at least. These same folks were pleading poverty in an e-mail in recent weeks. I don't think they know where their money comes from. Certainly saved me a donation. I know they were trying to be cool, maybe even inclusive. But they have only managed to polarize opinion from the horrified parents to the accusations of cultural appropriation. My favorite though was the person who pointed out the dancing didn't really fit the music. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tebasile Posted September 21, 2020 Share Posted September 21, 2020 Gosh, those lyrics are exhausting to read 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DD Driver Posted September 21, 2020 Author Share Posted September 21, 2020 Looks like they have taken it down. Good decision! Some of the basic marketing lessons seem to have been lost lately. It was drummed into me that, in business, you must always protect your brand and associated values. Know who your audience, customers and donors are etc. That is where the money to continue comes from. It is so hard (expensive and time consuming) to build a brand and attract & maintain customers/donors. Possibly, people who do understand this have been shouted down by others in the business and outside of it. Hence, the buck stops at the top. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oncnp Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 8 hours ago, DD Driver said: Looks like they have taken it down. Good decision! Some of the basic marketing lessons seem to have been lost lately. It was drummed into me that, in business, you must always protect your brand and associated values. Know who your audience, customers and donors are etc. That is where the money to continue comes from. It is so hard (expensive and time consuming) to build a brand and attract & maintain customers/donors. Possibly, people who do understand this have been shouted down by others in the business and outside of it. Hence, the buck stops at the top. Totally agree but I wouldn't assume it was taken down because of public outrage though. They might have infringed copyright on the music or the choreography. Videos get taken down for all kinds of reasons including folks just changing their minds (e.g. noticed this morning that one of the dancers I follow, one of the most non-controversial out there, took down what seemed to be a perfectly harmless video (music from the 1920s, choreography his own) he posted yesterday). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jan McNulty Posted September 22, 2020 Share Posted September 22, 2020 As the IG post has been taken down I have locked this thread against further comment. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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