After cancelling Girlboss, maybe Netflix needs to think twice about their marketing strategy

Netflix has been canceling shows left and right, shows that maybe struggled because they weren’t advertised that well to begin with.

You turn on Netflix to binge-watch, of course. But as far as content goes, you’re either looking to re-watch your favorite show, catch up on the latest hit sweeping the nation, or hoping they updated their movies list.

But unless you open your browser at the right time, chances are you open the spotlight, see something about new episodes for something, then move right along. Point being, there’s a ton of original content on Netflix you probably don’t even know about. (Unless you’re an actual professional at Netflix and Chill, in which case, I apologize for trying to generalize the situation.)

Either way, Girlboss wasn’t on anyone’s radar. Which makes its cancellation at Netflix expected. And also, super reasonable because it was advertised really poorly. Based on the one trailer I saw, I already knew that I wasn’t going to like Britt Robertson’s fictional portrayal of real-life entrepreneur Sophia Amoruso. Robertson’s Amoruso came off so unlikeable (yeah, but as Amoruso says in her book, you’re not friends with your boss, sure), but to draw in a Netflix audience, your main character has to sell better. Especially if your main character’s a woman.

Even Amoruso hinted that the narrative probably deviated away from what should’ve been really empowering content:

"While I’m proud of the work we did, I’m looking forward to controlling my narrative from here on out. It was a good show, and I was privileged to work with incredible talent, but living my life as a caricature was hard even if only for two months. Yes, I can be difficult. No, I’m not a dick. No, someone named Shane never cheated on me. It will be nice to someday tell the story of what’s happened in the last few years. People read the headline, not the correction, I’ve learned."

So that begs the question: Why did Netflix advertise the show that way? Or rather, why didn’t it advertise it more? Why didn’t Netflix advertise The Get Down or Sense8 more?

According to AdNews, Netflix wants to spend closer to one billion dollars this year. Which is great, but not if they’re only promoting the hits. I mean, as amazing as the streaming service is, it’s not infallible.

As we get closer to Stranger Things‘ release this Halloween, let’s see how much they throw their backs into hyping up the biggest series of last year.

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