When one of your favorite movies of all time posts a teaser image promoting a huge announcement, you’re bound to get really excited and curious. It’s just a shame when the announcement turns out to be a total dud.
When you look at the post above, what first comes to mind? In today’s world filled with reboots, revivals and reunions, it’s only natural that we assumed something very exciting was happening.
So it’s no wonder that when the announcement finally came yesterday afternoon, it left us all heavily disappointed, and honestly kind of annoyed.
Merchandise. That’s what this random announcement was about, destroying the dreams of thousands of excited fans who flocked to Facebook later that day for the announcement about a potential sequel to the immensely popular Legally Blonde franchise.
The worst part about it? It’s not even good merchandise! The products on the website value way below some of the work I’ve seen in Etsy shops, and they come at an insane price.
The baseball cap you see above goes for a ridiculous $28.00. And taking a look at their website, it looks like the funds aren’t even going toward a good cause. My roommate saw the baseball cap on my screen and immediately asked, “Oh, is that for breast cancer awareness?”
Nope! It would have been a great idea to do so, but taking a look at the link in their announcement, it looks like the Legally Blonde page just randomly decided to create a shop with mediocre merchandise in an obvious scheme to make more money.
This is the exact reason why we think brands need to stop over-hyping their announcements. The really sad part, though, is that Legally Blonde didn’t even over-hype anything. They just made one really stupid marketing decision.
Luckily, I’m not someone to just look at a page and assume the worst, even though I definitely rolled my eyes when the link in the announcement lead to a merchandise page.
If you look past the major disappointment and go exploring, you’ll find out that the website where the merchandise is bought, WhoHaha, is actually a really fantastic place. Created by Elizabeth Banks, WhoHaha’s purpose was to promote “funny women from around the globe who are creating unique and entertaining content, from Amy Schumer and Mindy Kaling to your 15-year-old neighbor who just started her own YouTube channel.”
I wouldn’t be so upset if I knew that Elizabeth Banks was working with Legally Blonde to promote her awesome website and overall goal of recognizing funny women in the entertainment industry. But that’s not what this announcement does.
This announcement played with our hopes of a new movie and fell flat on its face. I don’t know a single person who looked at their post and was actually excited about it, and it’s honestly kind of hysterical.
This was just a fantastic example of how over-hyping an announcement, particularly one about merchandise, can end up angering fans instead of exciting them.