Another Day, Another Apology From Netflix; Calls Americans Self-Absorbed
from the must-be-fun-to-be-netflix-pr dept
Netflix PR people must be having quite a week. First, the company had to apologize for hiring actors to pretend to be excited Canadian customers to the press, and then CEO Reed Hastings made a really bad joke to a reporter, when asked if Americans would get upset about the fact that Netflix was cheaper in Canada. In response, Hastings called Americans self-absorbed and figured they wouldn't notice:THR: American services when they enter the Canadian market typically charge the locals more than they charge stateside. Why the discount for Canadians?While it may have been true that most Americans wouldn't have noticed, making such a statement certainly called their attention to it... and so, off we go to yet another Netflix apology, where Hastings apologies for the "awkward joke" and talks about how great Americans are.
Hastings: We want to provide an incredible value for Canadians, and it's the lowest price we have anywhere in the world for unlimited screenings. And anyone can try it for free for a month. It's pretty addictive.
THR: Are you concerned that American Netflix subscribers will look north and ask for the same discount Canadians get at $7.99?
Hastings: How much has it been your experience that Americans follow what happens in the world? It's something we'll monitor, but Americans are somewhat self-absorbed.
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Filed Under: americans, canada, pr, reed hastings, self-absorbed
Companies: netflix
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There's less content
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I bet you very few Canadians actually disagree with his flippant remark.
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Anyway, I don't know what the selection is like but I'd happily pay that price for some streaming content (admittedly, I have a predilection toward cult and world cinema, and don't care how old the film is).
Anyway, I wouldn't be surprised if this is just the initial launch selection and they're having to put up with the usual luddites who own the content before they can licence more.
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*cough*
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Meh....
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Re: Meh....
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Re: Re: Re: Meh....
How many US Americans (and the South Africa) can even point out Iraq or Afghanistan on a world map? Some can't even point out the USA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lj3iNxZ8Dww
How many US Americans know what the currency is in Germany?
There is a Luxury in being a dominant super-power, with 300+ Million people and a massive share of the world's wealth. That luxury is the ability to spend little time worrying about the rest of the world. Smaller countries don't have this easy out, since they are entangled in inter-dependencies with all their neighbors. Do you think Luxembourg is ignorant of Belgium? But as with many luxuries, it builds complacency, and our historic self-reliance removes the drive to learn and explore. I don't think that's a good thing.
If it's true that as a country we are self-absorbed, then we should just own it. And if it is something we think is a problem, we should work to change it.
If there is a problem of ignorance, denial is not the appropriate response...unless the goal is irony.
And yeah, I'm half Canuck, so commence flaming.
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Re: Meh....
I don't think I'll use Netflix any time soon and my cap is 60GB.
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Didn't use the service much before...
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What, you never noticed?
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Re: What, you never noticed?
I mean, that's like that BS going around that Americans all have ADD. It's just stupid and ignorant. We're perfectly capable of - Squirrel!
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Also, as far as getting/being fat, every prosperous country has it's population get fat. Europe is catching up to America in weight at a tremendous pace. I believe Australia is relatively close also. Why one countries' weight should matter to anyone is beyond me. Oh look, the average American weighs more than the average Brit. Go Britain! I mean seriously?
As for all of you haters supporting this CEO and his comment, it doesn't make you enlightened or better than your fellow American if you bash your own.
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It does however, make us more in tune with reality if we realize and can point out these simple facts.
Don't they say somewhere that accepting you have a problem is the first step to solving that problem?
So we're taking steps to improve the state of our union, while you sit back and call us 'librul eletist foolz', and somehow we're the ones in the wrong?? Please...
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Giddy-up
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I will give you the Queen point, not only do we pay homage, she is actually our head of state... How does that make any sense?!
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Sadly, I must agree with this group's snobbery while on one hand worshiping Paris while they desperately try to be New York north or London west and fail repeatedly to be either.
Another poster is correct in saying that outside of that area and highly inbred group, most Canadians are american in outlook and attitude (small letter deliberate) and have far more in common with our American cousins that we have with our self proclaimed "cultural" elite. The same applies to the Maritimes and Newfoundland. Quebec is a bit of a different story but in the end they're very american, too, they just speak an old americanized French dialect.
What the hell is wrong with the Trailer Park Boys, anyway? ;-)
As for the Queen, if you can figure out a better arrangement than a constitutional monarchy please let us know. We're all pretty sure the system used south of the border, though it may fit the United States, would be marked FAIL up here. And, we don't pay her much in the way of homage. Just a few beaver pelts and free board and lodging when she or her family come to visit. They're nice people, too, except for a certain fella named Phillip.
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Re: What, you never noticed?
Not only do many Americans not pay attention to the rest of the world, but many don't even pay enough attention to what happens directly around them... And that's part of the reason we have so many idiot politicians...voters don't care to dig for information beyond what the commercials give them.
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Re: What, you never noticed?
Now that you infected this thread, we're going to see disease spread and destroy this discussion. The usual symptoms will be in effect: stupidity, irrational behavior, shouting (full caps) and comparisons to Nazis/Hitler.
Everyone! Please wear full face masks and common sense! You might not become infected.
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Re: Re: What, you never noticed?
US Americans are self absorbed, kind of stupid, irrational, AND THEY HAD LEADERS LIKE HITLER (well, maybe just self interest war mongers, aka Republicans.)
So there.
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Re: What, you never noticed?
Disclaimer: I'm from the US and I would be in that last 1. I'm not particularly offended what a Canadian has to say about me (I know better) but if some American CEO were to say "All Canadians wear fur, live in igloos and start fires by rubbing 2 sticks together" there would be just as much an issue in the other direction.
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Look, it's about time that we got a discount up here from US prices when we usually pay a premium.
And yes, there's less choice up here in the great white north because of the idiotic licensing arrangements worked out years ago when someone down south thought we were still a British colony or some southern US congress member who thinks we're lining up at the border to flee oppression and what not and want a wall built across the border by Homeland security or a bunch of softwood lumber barons down south who can't compete with us and a whole lot of other nonsense that we are subjected to by incredibly ignorant but,sadly, powerful Americans.
That said, as individuals I've found Americans from all parts of the country to range from total ignorance of Canada to fairly well informed and the whole range in between. Equally Canadians range from well informed to those who believe each and every stereotype of Americans that comes down the pike (mostly from American television I need to add).
In chat rooms I've found individual Americans to be curious about us and to ask deeper questions as the conversations go on until we all realize that we're kinda like cousins who don't pay much attention to each other until one of us bumps too hard into the other. Of course, we're the 150 pound weakling as the old ads in comic books say but in the end we understand each other better.
Some things we'll never agree on but many others we do. As it says on the Peace Arch between Washington state and the province of British Columbia as we cross the border we're children of a common mother with all the sibling silliness that goes on with that.
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I don't think anyone (with the exception of some of our enemy states) believes that. I think most people know that America has a good portion of the best and brightest in the world. American earns a great deal of global respect on the back of the 10% of which you speak.
It is our poor record of raising up the remaining 9 that earns us some disdain.
And it is the most clueless among us, those most unaware of the rest of the world, whom are the most certain that we are better. That kind of superiority complex, paired with willful ignorance, rubs our planet-mates the wrong way.
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Re: Re: What, you never noticed?
No there wouldn't. That is reality.
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Re: What, you never noticed?
Jersey Shore.. think of all the people who watch that.. and then think of all the people who try and mimic that lifestyle.
Pretty much all the useless rich people in the world, right? The people who are rich but have absolutely no desire to put their money into something useful, like running a company that actually innovates or something, I dunno. Anything other than what the aforementioned types of people do now.
You hear stories about it from everywhere, every country.
It's just that there's more useless rich people in America.
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What's the big deal?
(yes, I'm an american, too).
Maybe he should have worded it a bit differently by saying "us Americans" instead of just "Americans."
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We Americans have a reputation of being self absorbed.
I'm really getting tired of our media, Techdirt included, picking apart everything people say.
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>media
Techdirt is a blog, not a part of the media.
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Blogs are part of the New Media.
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Seriously. I mean, shouldn't we both be ganging up on Mexico?
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Shatner-stealing Mexico-touchers!
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*starts singing Blame Canada*
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Well, not really, we're just fighting the battle at the Plains of Abraham outside Quebec City over and over and over again. Call it our national political pastime.
If you think anglos in Canada and Quebecois hate each other you should try the angle of Acadians (french speaking) and Quebecois if you want REAL hatred! ;-)
Anyway, we don't go absurd lengths with the language thing. We're used to English and French on our Corn Flakes boxes now. We're having to get used to trilingual packages coming out of the United States now as marketers there realize there's an awful lot of Spanish speaking consumers out there that they really, really want to reach. Not just illegals.
I also know some folks in the former Confederate States who think the Parti Quebecois is onto something with their idea of a referendum to withdraw from confederation and dream of trying it there!
The vast majority of us don't worry much about the U.S. until something happens there that directly affects us. It's surprising often, don't you know. With our economies as entwined as they are it has to be. Whether you feel is as much as we do when we do something stupid is open to question, of course, but imagine the price of oil tomorrow if we shut off the tap!
And really, I don't care if we'd only qualify as a state but for your information we'd be the second largest state economy under that arrangement after California. We're not the slightest bit interested in moving in with you, though.
Jealous? Not really. In some things yes, in others no. Works the same way for Americans who take an interest in us, too.
Anyway, I thought the war of 1812 ended about 196 yeas ago. Can we just let it rest in peace? ;-)
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Umm...I think the underlying theme here is that it IS healthy and wise to worry about what's happening in other countries.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that you find respecting the language and history of the Quebecois as "absurd". It does take effort. Not everything worthwhile is easy.
To paraphrase you, 'Why don't you worry about what goes on outside your borders, and outside your comfort zone before you worry about the prior comment?' There's learnin' out there somewhere!
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Canada...
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Re: Canada...
Canada is to America as:
a. A pistol is to a rocket launcher
b. Wisconsin is to Illinois
c. Rosie O'donnell is to Megan Fox
d. All of the above
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:-P
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>.
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Re: >.
That, my friend, is what we call a penis confuser....
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Seriously, he should add "thin skinned" to his assessment of U.S. citizens.
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He's probably right anyway. I certainly don't care enough to look up Netflix prices across the border, and even if I did I would be unlikely to care.
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@18 did they pay you to say that
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Self Absorbed?
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Self-absorbed
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Tsk tsk
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I'm not your fwriend, Guy!
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Americans are so self-absorbed they can't realize how self-absorbed they are.
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(See: Election of Obama)
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Seriously... how can you be so fucking stupid?
War for no reason.. You obviously are brain-dead and don't remember WHAT HAPPENED ON 9/11/2001. We just had an anniversary of that even recently, or are you too stupid to even remember THAT?
obama is going to be one and done. Let me explain that to you, as you probably don't understand. ONE TERM and out as president.
I'd like to slap you with the constitution until you realize liberalism is bad for this country.
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Please explain what Iraq had to do with 9/11.
I'm not going to call you brain-dead, but it almost seems that you don't remember that we went to war with Iraq because of WMD, not 9/11. But I know that you ARE clever enough to remember THAT.
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"9/11!! 9/11!! Everyone but me is stupid!!"
No one is buying that anymore.
"lib·er·al·ism [lib-er-uh-liz-uhm]
–noun
1. the quality or state of being liberal, as in behavior or attitude.
2. a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, nonviolent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties. "
Governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties......is somehow bad for the country?? Wouldn't slapping someone with the Constitution make them realize that this country was Liberal when it was founded, that it was framed on Liberalism, and that tolerance, acceptance, and coexistence was the goal of our founding fathers??
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Self absorbed?
The only reason I would be slightly insulted about the "self-absorbed" comment (rolling eyes insulted, nothing else) is that he singled out US citizens. We do not have exclusive rights to that. Everyone does that, it's part of being human.
Now I am insulted by the general argument about being insulted. Cease and desist before I sue Netflix for your crude insults. /sarc.
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Re: Self absorbed?
The self-absorbed comment is a pretty common generalization about Americans around the world though. The old adage about a few bad apples ruining it for the rest? The real question is, was he right? Would anyone have noticed if the press hadn't taken his "insult" and plastered it all across the internet? Would anyone have cared?
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Re: Re: Self absorbed?
My response to the self-absorption of Americans is that it would have been noticed just as mild insults of Canadians, no matter who utters them (the English are particularly good at it) go into deep self-absorption mode in English and French every time it happens.
And we're just as self-absorbed as Americans are. Maybe more so. (According to this Canadian.)
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But I also don't understand why people use services like facebook and netflix where there are better options out there where the heads of companies insult their populace.
Guess people are too self-absorbed to notice that, also.
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Hastings is right.
But I'm not mad now that I do know.
That's because I can't help but agree with the little lass whose saving me over $300 a year on car insurance.
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Found that out and I don't think the game even exist anymore after the community strung them up. Though I wonder if this "joke" will take the same turn or not.
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Why would anyone in the U.S. get upset with Canada? I mean really. On a good day, the U.S. Salvation Army could probably take Canada out if they wanted to.
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