There are a couple things things that really make identity marketing work. First: emptiness. We don’t need to discuss to why people feel empty in our contemporary society — that’s an entirely different rabbit hole that leads in about a hundred different directions (and anyone claiming one thing does it is likely marketing something) — but marketers know that enough people out there do not feel fulfilled by their life that if they put out a message that subtly implies their product/service/creation can lead to fulfillment, they can get a lot of very dedicated responses. The other thing — denial — involves saying “no, I made that choice or had that thought. Me. Not a damn marketing department!” It depends, heavily so, on how much people absolutely refuse to acknowledge that media can influence them.

To a degree, this is true. When someone says “violent media makes people violent,” they’re full of shit. They haven’t done much reading about human psychology and they don’t care enough to. Because this absolutely isn’t true, a lot of people think media messages have no affect on them — which is also not true. Have you ever heard a Chili’s commercial for their great deals on Spotify while doing work at 11am to get home to your partner and say “hey, I had an idea! We should go to Chili’s on Friday!” and enjoyed a delicious 2 for $20 deal there with them? Have you ever cried at a movie? Have you ever laughed at a movie?

That’s not identity marketing; it’s just media affecting you and is not insidious. In fact, the Chili’s ad is actually pretty good marketing. It’s fairly information-oriented and innocuous in its influence on you (as it should be), but it did influence you. In this case, it was presenting you information that correctly meshed with how you were feeling at the time — you may have been in need of something to do, perhaps an inexpensive but nice night out with your partner. Having this extra bit of info changed your behavior and choices in a way that was mostly your choosing, but also wouldn’t have been the same had you not heard the ad. It did not try to tell you who you are or attempt to create an “other” to feel threatened by. It didn’t imply to you that the only way to stick it to those smug vegans is to buy a premium steak, and it didn’t try to tell you it’s worth it to spend that extra money to eat organic vegan so you don’t look like those red-blooded, “fatass” plebs.

YOU’RE A _____! SO WHEN YOU _____, OF COURSE YOU NEED A _____! ANYONE WHO DOESN’T GET WHY YOU LOVE _____ SO MUCH IS AN IGNORANT DIPSHIT!

This is how, to bring up controversy from recent years, video games don’t make killers but do contribute to misogynistic, transphobic, or racist culture. They market a very specific identity — a straight, white, cis male who can’t get enough AAA gaming(!) — as the general backdrop for their messages. In doing so, they allow people of this identity to feel some degree of stewardship over the medium — and falsely so. Marketing departments doing this likely see themselves as sheperds, not servants, tasked with making their customers accept some really shady business practices because “that’s just how it is for us gamers!” Therefore when women, PoC, or LGBTQ folks want some degree of representation in gaming, it’s looked at as a threat by the “core fans.”

Gaming is one of the most prominent current examples, but an alarming amount of entertainment-related marketing has been employing this mindset for a very long time. YouTubers are routinely encouraged to cultivate and name their fanbases, giving them something to call themselves — an identity. I am a YouTuber and have done this, because I didn’t get it. I hate that I have done this.

It sounds like it’s all in good fun, but I don’t know if anyone has ever actually spent time thinking about this. When someone says “oh I am a total Bro” and means “PewDiePie fan” by it, they are saying “I’ve subscribed mentally.” If PewDiePie started preaching unsavory (bigoted) things to people (in good faith, I assume that he doesn’t; I do not watch him) then the “Bros” would be the most receptive to it. Sure, he’d lose some, but there’d be more than enough left over (the most dedicated of them all) — and new ones would come in after finding out he was preaching shitty things in what I have to stress is an entirely hypothetical situation.

I have to stress it because a lot of people will respond “ugh I am a Bro and I don’t fucking think that way you dumb fuck. I think for my fucking self! FUCK YOU!” I have to stress because people have tied their identity up in PewDiePie. Because that is what this does.