Today, popular media has fractured into a thousand subcultures. Exclusive content acts as the glue holding these subcultures together.
When Ryan Reynolds drops an exclusive 30-second clip of Deadpool 4 texture work on his personal Instagram Reel (not the official movie account), that is exclusive. When a Marvel director goes live on Twitch only for subscribers to ask questions, that is the new press junket.
For the consumer, this era is both thrilling and exhausting. It is thrilling to peel back the layers of a Succession finale via a proprietary HBO Max podcast. It is exhausting to realize you need a spreadsheet to track where every John Wick deleted scene lives.