Samuel L. Jackson Accidentally Sparked a Social Media Campaign for the Porn Industry

Samuel L. Jackson made a promotional appearance with the rest of the cast of Captain America: The Winter Soldier back in March when the cast (which also stars Anthony Mackie and Scarlett Johansson) was asked about the biggest pop culture innovations from the last half century. Sam Jackson's response, according to The Washington Post: RedTube, a free online porn site. Joking or not, this no doubt got a few laughs (and a few surreptitious head nods of agreement). But the porn industry doesn't think it's so funny. When people watch free porn, it means they're not paying the industry for its product. Moreover, these sorts of free porn sites don't monitor content for piracy. So #PayForYourPorn was born. (BTW, that hashtag is NSFW.) However, the porn industry is battling a stigma that is a huge hurdle to its campaign and an industry that isn't nearly as regulated as the mainstream entertainment industry. Also, no one wants to pay for porn -- or anything else for that matter -- that they don't have to. A piracy expert named Nate Glass, speaking with Russia Today says that many of the people behind-the-scenes of the porn industry are actually middle class, unlike any of the celebrities who were sitting on the stage that day at the Captain America event. When they're not paid for their work, it's a big blow. Coleen Singer, writing for Sssh.com continues with that argument: "There are literally thousands of 'free porn movie sites' out there that rely on this mysterious thing called 'user generated content' to maintain their loophole protection in the Digital Millennia Copyright Act (DMCA) and we overworked, underfunded and abused porn producers spend a whole lot of time and money we don’t have issuing takedown orders for our oh-so-sexy adult movies that get onto the tubes and torrents within minutes of legitimate release on our sites." Part of the problem is that a lot of people don't think of the porn industry as legit, even when the site is. People watch porn quietly and privately. Because they keep their activity on QT, they don't think of it as a business that's on the up-and-up. The industry has to first make people see that, though this isn't mainstream, it's just as much a part of the entertainment industry as any other kind of film. That means those in the porn industry also have to be sure to represent themselves in a way that audiences, whether they watch or not, can relate to from a business standpoint. That's a campaign in and of itself. Once they establish that, the industry has to motivate people to want to say, "Yes! We should all be paying for this!" That's probably the bigger obstacle. The Motion Picture Association of America has had an anti-piracy campaign for years and you can still find people selling DVDs of movies that are still in theaters out in the open on a New York City subway. Getting people to agree to pay for something that was once free is a tough sell, something anyone in journalism can tell you. David Kay from Porn.com says his company have an ad-supported model that he likens to Netflix. Perhaps that's a way to go that many people can relate to. A social media campaign is a start, but the industry will have to be vigilant for the long haul to change old preconceptions. [via The Washington Post]

Social Pro Daily

Samuel L. Jackson Accidentally Sparked a Social Media Campaign for the Porn Industry

A funny response to a question touched off a very real discussion for the makers of adult entertainment.

Tonya Garcia

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Tonya Garcia