Pop Culture Insider John Rocha Bemoans Manufactured And Fake Movie Hype Surrounding 'Avengers: Doomsday'

Pop culture critic John Rocha, who made his name at Collider before starting his own YouTube channel and hosting The Hot Mic show with Jeff Sneider, recently bemoaned the current trend of major studios seemingly buying off influencers to hype their films.

Rocha’s criticism of this trend came in the wake of Marvel working with a number of social media influencers to react to and hype up Avengers: Doomsday by watching a trailer teasing the return of Chris Evans as Steve Rogers.

During a segment of The Hot Mic, Rocha said, “This felt-. Why are we doing this? You know, Jeff, it feels a little very manufactured. These are influencers.”

He then referenced one individual, SUPES, who has over 255,000 YouTube subscribers, “Supes is absolutely an influencer, made his name off loving Superman and now he’s gone on the Marvel train to keep his brand going. But I mean he had done a reaction to this trailer when it was leaked. So, him going in and seeing the trailer full on as way of like reacting to it like as if he’s seeing it for the first time, there’s a little manipulative [expletive] going on here that’s a little frustrating.”

To be clear SUPES did a reaction to the leaked trailer back on December 15th:

He then participated in what he’s describing as a secret Avengers: Doomsday event where he watched the trailer again:

After Rocha’s co-host, Jeff Sneider shared his thoughts, Rocha continued to criticize this marketing technique, “I think you’ve got a great point for some of these other reactions. And I know for a fact, because I’ve had conversations with some of them. They do watch the trailer ahead of time then react to it in a big way so that they can get the attention and whatever. … I don’t watch them ahead of time. I know some people do, and I just don’t think that’s authentic.”

Sneider then made his thoughts abundantly clear, “This is all fake.” He then criticized AGBO, the Russo Brothers production company for embracing DEI with the people it invited, “Did you see the group photo? You want to talk about forced diversity, folks. This is like we need a black man and a black woman. We need a woman in a hijab and we need two Asians. And we need a white woman and a white man and a Latino. It’s like the United Colors of Benetton up there. It is so preposterous. It’s like it was focus grouped to death. How can we hit the most genders and be the most inclusive as far as letting these nine people watch this trailer before time. It is absurd.”

Rocha then continued to question the authenticity of the influencers that participated in the event, “How was this really legitimately pitched? Were you pitched-? … It’s like James Gunn the other day doing a tour but he only went on YouTube channels that kissed his ass. He would not go on any YouTube channels that would challenge him. It’s this kind of marketing that you see happening that’s a little inauthentic overall and I think that’s frustrating.”

Sneider concurred, “It feels so fake.”

He then went on to blast the entire industry, “Critics are just reviewing for other critics. They’re reviewing for the Rotten Tomatoes and Letterboxd communities. They’re reviewing for the publicists so they can get a pat on the head, and maybe a quote, and maybe an invitation to the after party, or whatever, the box of swag. It’s [expletive] crazy. Nobody is reviewing for the actual audience.”

Rocha returned to Marvel and this Avengers: Doomsday event, “It’s clearly that they invited influencers. They invited people they wanted to have there to be apart of this thing.”

“There’s something almost desperate about it as well. You’re manufacturing these moments,” he concluded.

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