Ashley
Z100 played an old clip today from an interview where One Direction; namely Louis and Harry thanked the fans for always supporting them for being who they were. It was just that bit of the clip, and during the entire interview Harry was talking about how they were thankful they could be who they wanted on and off stage and still have fan support.
However; this sets the stage for some major seeding to take place if you believe in the Harry and Louis being together narrative.
Z100 first played the clip, again, about 3 weeks before Babygate. I heard it driving to drop my son off at his therapy session and I was floored. It was a very random clip for them to bring back all of a sudden, and it was talked about for maybe a few hours and then it was gone again. I only heard it one more time and then it vanished.
Today; Z100 played the clip again. It was a small snippet on the radio, thanking fans for their support through everything; no matter what.
It blew up, on tumblr, on twitter, on social media. There are blog posts showcasing that family members and friends made phone calls to their 1D obsessed pals congratulating them on Harry and Louis being out, telling them they were right about all the baby gate news being a set up.
This, my friends, is seeding.
The interview clip had NOTHING do with Louis and Harry’s sexuality; it was simply an old clip, but the timing, the way it’s released and the reaction is why PR companies, management companies, and teams of artists bring up old interviews with the “right” type of wording. They test the waters, they test the fan bases, and they see what is going to get the biggest reaction.
Astroturfing and seeding go hand in hand; especially on social media with large fan bases and following. There are “anonymous” people sent to send messages and tweets to “large” blogs/twitter accounts with questions. Sometimes the questions are opinion ones, sometimes they ask for factual information to support these opinions. There are also people sent to send “I heards”. These blogs and twitter accounts get messages where people can ‘confirm’ that there will be a big story broken within x amount of days, or people saying they know this person or that person in Hollywood who believes a certain narrative they’re trying to sell. Usually within a week or two; these messages turn into news stories and are either confirmed or denied. The reason they reach out to the fan bases first? To get temperature checks to see what route they should take to get the best results, the most clicks, the most interested fans. Unfortunately; negativity and scandal sells more in our day than positivity; so sometimes the stories that win, while untrue, are the bad ones.
In the past week we’ve had “confirmations” without the words ‘pregnant’ ‘baby’ ‘father’ or congratulations actually being said, Briana miscarriage rumors, followed by “baby bump” photos, and now an interview clip that makes people think Harry and Louis are finally out and together?
I have no idea what’s actually going on, but this is big, and if you’re a fan of the band, a fan of Louis and Harry, or even just a friend of someone who is; I think you’ll agree with me.
So stay awake One Directions fans, we were already anticipating the events of today and Louis’ charity ball, now we’ve had another surprise thrown at us, but like Louis said himself; nothing we do goes unnoticed, not to them, or their management team.
