The variety of available TV-shows and movies today could basically be described as limitless. There are so any streaming platforms that it’s hard to keep track and thus you can pretty much watch or at least rent or buy any movie and watch any TV-series. This also means that the same where as 20 years ago, a show could be very popular domestically for airing every week at the same time in the same channel, today a new Netflix show can become a worldwide phenomena within a week. These trendy shows and movies can affect people’s behavior and interests quite rapidly and it has been proved through out the years.
One of the biggest influences a show has had within the last years has been 2020’s Netflix show called Queen’s Gambit. If you haven’t already heard of this show, now is about the time. This show is about a girl who is a mastermind in chess. And when I say mastermind, I mean mastermind. This show made people go CRAZY about chess. A game that has been predicted to have been invented approximately 1500 years ago, has now become a phenomena. And while you can find many online chess platforms, people went crazy on the actual game board. Many shops ran out of chess all over the world, Finland including. I myself tried to buy a chess board for Christmas and let me tell you it was not that simple.
Thankfully, as I mentioned, there are online options as well. Chess.com has become a very popular among online players and has also seen a specific change in its statistic regarding its app downloads. However, you would probably think that the downloads have increased on chess apps remarkably, but since chess is a very visual game and it’s meant to be played on actual board, not everyone wants to play chess on small mobiles. And yes, mobiles are huge these days, but it still does not compare to an actual board game. Another example related to the game world, is the Last Dance document which Netflix released in April of 2020, increased the hype within PlayStation community by releasing certain clothing for NBA 2k21.
The influence from a TV-show or a movie can begin with the smallest details, which the first time watching won’t probably even make sense to be a “trend”. For example, the legendary movie E.T. actually was one of the reasons Reeses Pieces got people’s attention and Stranger Things made the “Eggo” treats run out from stores. These factors have not been the main character of the show or movie but have still caught people’s eyes and made them more popular. This means that in the future, product placement in series and movies shall be in an expressively essential role. Queen’s Gambit is an example where we cannot call it product placement, since the whole show is about a certain game. Basically QG could be compared to ESPN, the basic content is pretty predictable.
