People have always liked being the good guy or the hero. On playgrounds as children, kids always had to fight over who was going to be the cowboy or the police officer when role playing. It is in all of our dreams to save people that are in need of help. This has been ingrained in us since we were children. Through movies, literature, TV shows, and even in advertisements, people are showing the hero as the likable guy or girl who saves everyone from the dumb criminal. In recent years there has seemed to be a shift in these forms of entertainment that the bad guys are smarter, better looking, and sometimes even the winner in the end.
In the real world there are examples of the "bad guys" winning. Donald Trump is now the president of the United States. Even though he was portrayed as a bad guy compared to all the other candidates. In the biggest TV show of all time, "Game of Thrones", the main character and hero is killed at the end of the first season. *Spoiler Alert* In "The Dark Knight" many people would say that the Joker is their favorite character in the movie over Batman. We are seeing a move in the trend towards people liking the bad guy more than the good guy. More and more people seem to support these "bad guys" or the TV show or movie they belong to. This is shown in the amount of money that these companies are making. "The Dark Knight" grossed over a Billion, with a B, dollars at the box office. According to the New York Times, "Game of Thrones" is bringing in "slightly more than $1 billion annually." And as stated above, Donald Trump is the president of our country.So where do we see the "bad guy" trend in marketing and advertising? The only example I can think of is in the Wendy's Twitter account. Wendy's has someone or a group of people that are constantly joking, insulting, messing around with, or "bullying" people and other companies on their Twitter account. This has brought so much attention to their account that there are videos with millions of views, blogs, and even news stories that are reacting to what Wendy's is posting. Many other companies are mocking or attempting to copy them and failing.
In marketing and advertising, will we see a trend of the "bad guy" winning and selling products to us? This is something that could possibly work if a company can think of a way to get people to like their villain. One of the most disappointing things is that we really aren't even seeing companies attempt to do this. Whether their afraid that they'll fail or that they will end up offending somebody is most likely the only things holding them back. We shall see where this goes and if more companies will take a chance and try it.
