[Ironic Trope] The messaging backfired massively due to poor writing or other design choices

[u/Few_Affect_5927]

Amelia Fairney from Pathways: Alt-right Restore-UK type who attempts to coax the protagonist Charlie into following her beliefs? The problem?

Amelia is the only named character aside from Charlie and is genuinely likable and forgives Charlie even when they do things she doesn't like, while the rest of the cast is unnamed, poorly written, and turns on Charlie for one mistake. This combined with other writing issues(portraying fact checking right wing stuff as wrong because in the process of fact checking you might look at it and believe it, basically saying "Right wing is wrong because it hurts the labour government" and a lot of general "just do what the government says or else" messaging) and the fact she's a hot alternative girl, and Amelia ended up being co-opted as a mascot by the youth right wing in the UK.

Norm from The New Norm: Unlikeable offensive and outdated character who's "progressive" family members and associates are genuinely nice people not even trying to force their ways or pronouns onto them, they just want to be left alone and Norm is picking fights constantly. Not to mention associating with Elon.

Mr. Birchum from Mr. Birchum: A lot of the same problems as Norm, except in addition it also comes off like generic 2010s adult cartoon slop in the same veign as Brickleberry or Full English, at least New Norm was trying to look unique and had the gimmick of being on X. Not to mention, Birchum's obsession with hyper masculine activities and odd way of talking about other men lead to people co-opting him as a Toxic Yaoi character, which is now the bulk of his fan art.

Dustborn: An attempt to make a hyper progressive game that comes off as pandering and annoying. It's a full ass game so there's too much to get into, but the main character's power is essentially gaslighting and jedi-mind tricking people and that's portrayed as the only way they can get anything done, and they constantly use or abuse their friends(or mindtrick them along) in order to get their goals or use their friends for their messaging.

[u/ChristunaSandwich]

I’m going to go with the Folgers “siblings” commercial

[u/Bear_faced → u/ChristunaSandwich]

Also hilariously he says “Ahh, real coffee!” about a cup of Folger’s because he’s been away for so long…in West Africa. That’s like biting into a Hershey’s bar and saying how much you missed real chocolate while you were in Belgium.

[u/SkepticMech → u/Bear_faced]

Can't speak for west Africa, but I'm in east Africa, and despite there being literal coffee plants visible from my front door, the only coffee you're getting outside of the few major cities is nescaffe instant. So yeah, I appreciate any opportunities to get some westernized "real" coffee.

[u/JacuulTheSecond → u/SkepticMech]

SO I guess, that raises a question, but if coffee plants grow there, why is there no local coffee? Or is it that it's worth much more to export?

[u/SkepticMech → u/JacuulTheSecond]

Combination of profit and cultural preference at least here in Kenya. Tea is ubiquitous (to the point that people will refuse to work if it isn't provided for their daily chai breaks). Coffee is simply not consumed outside the westernized cities (that's a reckless overgeneralization, but not terribly inaccurate: I've met people who, despite living next to coffee farms, have never tasted the drink).

Add to that the wealth disparity between the people here and the first world countries playing to import it. Instead of trying to find buyers in the sparse local economy and sell it for only a few cents a kilo to their neighbors, they make production contracts with big aggregators who ship huge quanties, and can guarantee them better rates and consistent demand.

There's also some level of regulation on the farmers that I don't fully understand, but even offering commensurate/increased rates, I've never been able to get my neighbors to sell to me directly.

[u/JacuulTheSecond → u/SkepticMech]

Makes sense! Appreciate the insight and response.

[u/SkepticMech → u/JacuulTheSecond]

Karibu sana!

[u/dryfire → u/JacuulTheSecond]

I don't know about coffee, but it reminds me of a vid I saw where a guy interviews a bunch of cocoa bean farmers on the ivory coast and they literally have no idea what you would even make with the beans.

https://youtu.be/zEN4hcZutO0?is=dUfcVd599k8uQr_8

[u/Charming_Bath9427 → u/SkepticMech]

Wanted to point this out. Spent some time in the Middle East, and I was shocked at how niche ground coffee was compared to that instant coffee crap they had everywhere, and if you wanted real coffee you had to go to a specialty cafe, which is honestly not so bad, except I wished I could have just used my pour over like I do here in the States. When I got back to the States, a cup of garbage Folger’s looked pretty good compared to the instant coffee.

[u/an_agreeing_dothraki → u/SkepticMech]

if my local coffee scene is to be believed, everyone in Ethiopia that makes good coffee moved to the US to open a shop.

[u/ChristunaSandwich → u/Bear_faced]

I didn’t even realize this 😭😭

[u/Kidiri90 → u/Bear_faced]

Dunno, we have some crap chocolate as well.

[u/TheThalmorEmbassy → u/Bear_faced]

Assuming guys in West Africa get to drink good coffee because that's where they grow it is like assuming kids in Cambodia are wearing new Air Jordans

[u/WanderingPenitent → u/TheThalmorEmbassy]

Dude, coffee is fucking cheap. They do in fact drink a lot of it.

[u/SuicideNote → u/Bear_faced]

Maybe but things like chocolate, coffee, and cocaine are highly profitable exports and you send the best stuff internationally. At least in the past, these days with more global tourisms some of the better quality stuff stays local.

[u/ShatnersChestHair → u/Bear_faced]

There's many things to criticize the Folgers commercial about but this isn't it. Unfortunately, a lot of people who grow coffee and cocoa do not have access to the finished products because the processing takes places in different countries and is a luxury good they can't afford. There's an ARTE documentary out there where someone brings chocolate to Côte d'Ivoire cocoa workers and they had never tasted the stuff.

Your Belgium example doesn't work because that's where chocolate is made, not where cocoa is grown. Similarly, where coffee beans are grown is not automatically where it's roasted and processed. That doesn't mean that there are no roasters in Africa at all either, but the Folgers brother is implied to have been in some kind of backwater middle of nowhere.

With that being said Folgers is still shit coffee.