How to...properly...advocate on the Ben 10 Reboot (and other shows)

[Tactical Ochoa]

So after this whole debacle with @npzman's idea of advocating against the Ben 10 reboot and the backlash that it got, I thought that I would make I guess a guide on how to more properly advocate and protest a show based on what I know. Here is the link to @npzman's page to know what happened and to act as an example of what not to do. In fact, this is what inspired and encouraged me to make this topic page. Now I don't intend to make @npzman look like crap. I just want to do something that's more informative and that could help this user, along with many others, out on what should and shouldn't be done.
http://ben10club.org/topic/262/let-s-mess-up-the-ben-10-reboot

Overview:
Now first off, I may not like the reboot show myself but if the show turns out to be successful, fine then. That's the thing. I would rather suggest for people to just accept that the reboot exists and is going to be around for a while and to just let it succeed or fail. There are also other ways in which people can help the Ben 10 franchise as well. I, for example, have a designed Ben 10 game and I'm making plans to try and apply at PlatinumGames to work as a Game Designer, hoping to get my Ben 10 game made. That is one way in which I am trying to help the Ben 10 franchise. However, if at least some of you reading this still want to advocate and protest the Ben 10 reboot in the hopes that Cartoon Network and Man of Action will make a different and better quality Ben 10 show, here is where my guide comes in. Now what people reading this do with this information is up to them. I also encourage people to read the entire page first before making a comment. This is also a very long argument that I made here so feel free to take your time reading through it.

So let's take a look at the company, Cartoon Network, themselves. Cartoon Network is a company. They run a business and because of this, they are in it for the money. To them, it's all about the money and profits. They are going to keep doing something as long as it brings in the money. Why do you think Cartoon Network constantly marathons Teen Titans Go!? Because even though there's a lot of hate for that show, it is also one of Cartoon Network's most viewed show and it's bringing Cartoon Network a lot of money. Why do you think there's a Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 reboot? Because the original Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 shows are two of the most successful shows for Cartoon Network in regards to the sales of merchandise. If you want to get a show cancelled, you go after the money. You find legal and proper ways to affect Cartoon Network's profits. You put Cartoon Network in a position where they have to make a decision that benefits us. If you want to affect and influence a show, then the money is your target. Affecting and influencing the profits is your goal.

There are two factors to making profits that Cartoon Network cares about the most. There's the viewer ratings and there's the merchandise sales; especially the merchandise sales. Cartoon Network surely does love shoving their merchandise in their viewer's face.

Merchandise Sales:
Let's focus on merchandise sales first. Like I said, Cartoon Network loves shoving their merchandise in their fans and viewers' faces. Merchandise is such a driving factor to them to the point where Cartoon Network has indeed cancelled plenty of their shows simply because they weren't selling toys, even though the shows are doing well enough with their viewer ratings. Sym-Bionic Titan and Young Justice being the most notorious examples of that. Ben 10 Omniverse didn't go well with merchandise sales and therefore Cartoon Network decided to rush out the remaining episodes so that they could cancel the show. Like I also said before, the original Powerpuff Girls and Ben 10 shows had the best sales in merchandise than Cartoon Network's other shows, which is why Cartoon Network decided to reboot those very shows. They want to repeat history again.

Now granted, I don't find this to be that much concerned about. It's definitely an important task to focus on but there are factors that already would impact the sales of merchandise that Cartoon Network don't seem to realize. First off, most Ben 10 fans aren't going to be buying these merchandise because they don't like the Ben 10 reboot and they're not going to be willing to support a show if they don't like it and they also got so sick and tired of Cartoon Network's constant pushing to sell more merchandise. Clearly, Cartoon Network isn't going to profit off of the fans. Second, these are kids that Cartoon Network are trying to sell toys to. Kids between the ages of 6-11 years old. Most of these kids don't have the money to buy these toys and merchandise. Some can through earning an allowance but I doubt that's going to be enough. Can they try to get their parents to buy these toys for them? Yes but in most cases, the parents are going to say "no." I experienced this myself plenty of times. I work at a Vons retail store. I've seen most parents even saying "no" to their kids wanting them to buy $0.50 lollipops for them. Why is that the case? First, most adults worry more on buying what is needed and not what is wanted. Gotta pay the bills and stock up the refrigerator and all that stuff. The smaller Ben 10 figures at the NY Toy Fair may go for $5-$10 but the toys, such as the toy Omnitrix and the Rustbucket play sets, could go for $20, $30, $40, etc. Most parents aren't going to be that will to spend money on those toys for their kids. Second, good parents care about properly raising their kids and they don't want to buy their kids too many things and thus spoil them. There is also a benefit to giving kids less toys but I'll get to that in a bit. Another thing to mention is that sales in Ben 10 merchandise may have started out very strong during the Original Series show's airing but by the time we got to Ultimate Alien, things went down hill. Ultimate Alien merchandise did poorly in sales. So poorly that most retail stores didn't even want to sell Omniverse merchandise. This was mentioned in a RebelTaxi podcast but I forgot which one. Anyways, this was the case because of what I mentioned before. Most fans didn't like Ultimate Alien and Omniverse and therefore they didn't want to support those shows. Most fans also got sick and tired of Cartoon Network pushing their merchandise in their faces a lot. Cartoon Network may have realized the sheer success of merchandise sales during the Original Series' run but they don't seem to remember, or even bother, about their merchandise sales for Ultimate Alien and Omniverse. They're not learning from their mistakes and as a result, they're once again repeating those mistakes. I doubt the toy line for the Ben 10 reboot is going to be successful enough for Cartoon Network to want to continue to keep the show running.

Now ok, let's say that you do have to take measures to influence and affect the sales of merchandise for the Ben 10 reboot. How do you go about that? You have to make a persuasive argument that convinces people to stand by your side. To make a well researched and argued claim that will garner you supporters. The more supporters you have, the better of an impact that you can bring. Again, you need to have a well made persuasive argument to gain supporters. To make claims such as Cartoon Network's constant push for selling more toys and merchandise is interfering with the artistic integrity of their shows or whatsoever and provide strong examples to back your claim up. Those are the key words that are important to gaining supporters: persuade and convince; NOT harass and force. There's a lot of having the right word choice being involved when making a proper persuasive argument. Another thing to take into consideration is that of some people decide not to support your claim and effort no matter how much you try to convince them otherwise, just leave it at that. Again, don't force and harass. It's not going to make you look good and it's a surefire way to lose supporters.

Here's one strong claim to make that can help with your efforts. I recently came across articles explaining the benefits of buying kids less toys (I'll leave a couple of links about this down below this paragraph). Reaching out to parents wanting to better and more properly raise their kids can benefit off of learning stuff like this so sharing this information with them can really help you and them. Anyways, while advocating for people to not purchase merchandise can harm the network companies, if these companies play things smart, then this setback would only affect them in the short run. With less and less fans and viewers being willing to purchase merchandise, it's going to make Cartoon Network, and even other network companies, realize that selling merchandise isn't going to be as profitable as it was before. That they can't rely that much on merchandise to gain profits anymore, thus putting Cartoon Network in a situation where they will need to do something to gain profits again and one way in which they can do this is by focusing more on getting higher viewer ratings, which means focusing more on making better quality shows with more artistic integrity in them. Now I'm not saying that toy lines and other merchandise need to fail. At the very least maybe just affect and influence sales of merchandise to the point where companies, such as Cartoon Network, can still successfully and reliably profit off of them. Just not as successful and reliable as it was before. Cartoon Network are those kids that did receive too many toys. They're spoiled by the sales and profits of merchandise and it's up to us to be the parents and un-spoil them and what I mentioned here can be good steps to doing and achieving that.
http://www.becomingminimalist.com/why-fewer-toys-will-actually-benefit-your-kids/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devishobha-ramanan/why-you-should-buy-lesser_b_7873110.html

Viewer Ratings:
Viewer ratings are another major factor to Cartoon Network gaining profits off of their shows...when Cartoon Network isn't too busy pushing their merchandise. As long as a show has high viewer ratings, Cartoon Network will continue to profit off of that and will be more willing to let the show run on the channel longer. So how do you go about lowering the viewer rating? Well, people just need to stop watching the show and that can happen naturally. If fans and viewers don't like a particular show, they're not going to watch it. The Powerpuff Girls reboot started off having 1.51 million viewers on its first episode. Now going onto its second season, the show is having trouble even reaching the one million views mark while also having lost around half its viewership by the half way mark of its first season. If this keeps up, the show isn't going to last much longer. If less and less people continue to watch a particular show, then Cartoon Network will be less willing to let that show stay on the air or at the very least be less willing to air the show often on their schedules.

Now, like before, let's say that you do need to convince viewers to stop watching certain shows as part of advocating and protesting those shows. You pretty much have to do the same thing that I mentioned above. Make a persuasive argument that can convince people to support your claim and effort and to stop watching certain shows. Granted, convincing people to stop watching a show could possibly be a little more tricky than convincing people to stop buying merchandise. One thing that is for certain is that in order to reduce the viewer ratings of a show, viewers have to lose interest in that show...or at least not watch the show as often and they did before. One way that this could be done is by convincing viewers to watch a different show instead. Replace one show with another for them. One that will peek their interest in the replacement show, taking their interest away from the show that you're advocating against. At least this is my suggestion. It's really more of a theory but hey, can't tell for sure if this is the case unless you give it a try. There may also be other methods that can be used to great effect as well.

Let's take Teen Titans Go! as an example of this. A lot of people constantly demand and complain for Cartoon Network to cancel Teen Titans Go! but Cartoon Network won't do that because the show currently has the highest viewer ratings on the channel. It would be a bad business decision to cancel the show. However, you can turn this into a good business decision by, once again, reducing the viewer ratings. To advocate and persuade for fans and viewers to stop watching the show and thus no longer making it the most popular show on the channel anymore. As I stated before, this could be done by introducing the fans and viewers of Teen Titans Go! to other shows that will peek their interest more than Teen Titans Go!. Maybe show them the original Teen Titans show as well as also showing them another show that is similar to Teen Titans Go! such as...I don't know, maybe Ed Edd n Eddy or something. The viewer ratings don't even have to be low enough to make Cartoon Network cancel the show. They can be low enough so that at least Cartoon Network would air the show less often than they currently do. At least maybe bring it down to where the show only takes up 25-33% of the weekly schedules, thus allowing for other, better shows to have more airings on the schedules, giving them the attention and support that they deserve.

Now let's get to the Ben 10 reboot. Cartoon Network and Man of Action claimed that the Ben 10 reboot was made to introduce a new generation of kids to the Ben 10 franchise. Well, why not just get connected to the new generation ourselves and introduce them to the 2005 Ben 10 Original Series as well as other better shows. Again, provide a replacement show that will get viewers interested in it while taking away their interest in the show that you're protesting.

Now through doing this method, if some fans and viewers decide that they want to keep watching shows such as Teen Titans Go! and the Ben 10 reboot no matter what you do to convince them otherwise, like I said before, just leave it to that. That's their decision and they have the freedom to make that decision. You have no right to force them otherwise.

The Demand:
Now you can't just protest and advocate for the cancellation of a show and then just leave it to that, hoping that Cartoon Network will make a better show within that franchise. If these efforts turn out successful and the Ben 10 reboot does get cancelled, Cartoon Network can take this as a message that the Ben 10 franchise no longer has any value to them and they will no longer continue to make new Ben 10 shows. However, this can possibly leave the franchise to be acquired by another company but they might see the franchise the same way that Cartoon Network sees it as and they'll think that Ben 10 no longer has any value to continue making more shows. This is where demand comes in.

Now there's a lot about this aspect of business known as "supply and demand" but I'm going to stick to this one factor of it. Consumers have a demand for a certain product. Companies would recognize that demand and will thus provide a supply of that very product to satisfy the demand. That's what needs to go on here. If you're going to advocate for the cancellation of the Ben 10 reboot but you don't want the franchise to end as it still has a lot of potential that hasn't been fulfilled, you have to show that there is a demand for the fulfillment of that very potential. For anyone that follows me around, you should know that I like to point out the Resident Evil franchise a lot and I continue to do so because it's a strong example of what I'm talking about here. When Resident Evil 6 came out, despite its success, it received a lot of backlash for the direction that it went. Many fans of Resident Evil DEMANDED for Capcom to take the series back to survival horror and back to its traditional roots. Because of this, Capcom realized that if they continued to take the franchise down the direction that Resident Evil 6 went, it's not going to go well for them. Capcom also realized that there is a significant and large demand for taking the Resident Evil series back to its traditional survival horror roots and therefore they went and made Resident Evil 7, which garnered a lot of success because it satisfied and fulfilled that demand while also taking a new direction that was well implemented.

Going back to Ben 10, while advocating and protesting against the Ben 10 reboot, a large and significant enough demand for a new Ben 10 show needs to be established. To demand for an action-oriented Ben 10 show. To demand for the return of the anime-like art and animation style that the Original Series had. To demand for the fulfillment of the potential that the Ben 10 sequel shows never pulled off and achieved. To demand for say a Ben 10,000/Ken 10 show...or to demand for a new reboot that acts as a sequel to the Original Series. One that uses many of the good elements of Alien Force while maintaining its traditional roots and identity, fixes the issues that the sequel shows created such as the continuity and Kevin's transition into being a hero and his relationship with Gwen and to keep Gwen a fully human sorceress and all that stuff, and to fulfill the potential that were never fulfilled (this latter one is something that I wanted to happen for the franchise). Now don't provide specific ideas to the production studio because unless they get your legal permission from you or unless you're working with them or something of the likes, they can't use those ideas because it's not their ideas and if you present an idea that they had, well they can't use that idea anymore. Demanding for stuff such as like what I mentioned is good enough. Make sure that the demand/message is clear, consistent, and understandable so that Cartoon Network doesn't misinterpret that demand/message and make a Ben 10 show that fans and viewers didn't ask for.

Overall, there needs to be an established large and significant demand for a new Ben 10 show that most, if not all, Ben 10 fans and viewers want to see. Establishing that very demand will convince Cartoon Network that the Ben 10 franchise does have value. That there is still enough worth to continue to make more Ben 10 shows. As long as it's established that the franchise still has enough value, demand, and potential to it, Cartoon Network and Man of Action will be more willing to continue to work on the franchise. Even if Cartoon Network decides not to continue working on the franchise, other companies can also notice that very demand and potential that's been established and they are thus more willing to acquire the rights and ownership of the Ben 10 franchise and get to work on making a Ben 10 show that satisfies and fulfills that demand and potential.

Conclusion:
So, that's it. This is my guide on how to better and more properly advocate against the Ben 10 reboot, or really just any show. If anyone has any thoughts and opinions of their own on this, feel free to leave a comment on here.

[npzman]

This post is deleted!

[npzman]

I see your point but I never buy the toys. The thing is I am only in it for the shows.The ben 10 reboot is nothing like the classic. They can use the same desgins and openings to repeat the sucess.

Why don't they do Ben 10 K show instead ?

[Tactical Ochoa]

Some information in regards to viewer ratings for shows.
https://www.reddit.com/r/TelevisionRatings/comments/3mpmov/tv_ratings_and_what_they_mean_a_quick_guide_for/

[Ebomnitrix]

There are some issues people aren't realizing though, most people want to watch shows online, not just for free and to avoid ads, but to just watch everything faster and avoid all the crappy shows the network has to offer. Cartoon Network barely makes a million views now because they're focusing on a streaming service that nobody is going to use. Boomerang will be a shock if there is enough people touching it but overall CN is going to screw themselves over if they focus more on the business and not the channel itself, which they haven't been doing since 2015. They maybe thinking TTG is going to lead them to success but they're wrong if they think only airing a handful of all the shows you're making right now is going to do anything, if you have 20 shows and only air 5 and a movie we've already seen a million times, its not going to do enough for the network to last much longer, take a look at what happened to Nickelodeon, they've been losing money to the point where they lost the amusement park, and I doubt anybody really watches the award shows anymore.
And another thing to mention, the only way to get ratings is a Nielsen box or to have Xfinity, they won't count the ratings any other cable providers offers so the ratings wouldn't do much since it only goes to those people. Now for what reason I don't know, but since a lot less people either don't have those boxes and prefer watching shows online, even on properties like KissCartoon/KissAsian, WatchCartoonsOnline, Animeflavor, Gogoanime, you name it, and its a long list.