A Lesson in Disingenuity

Quick Snapshot: The American Music Awards marketing was a big miss, leading to lots of confusion and frustration. Their obvious misdirection says more about their respect for their audiences and degrades the trust people have in them and marketing at-large. This is another lesson in the importance of building and maintaining trust with fans, and that once it’s destroyed, it’s almost impossible to come back.

I don’t know about you, but I keep getting served the ad to stream the American Music Awards on Paramount+. And every time I watch it, I get incrementally more annoyed. Not because it’s an ad but because it reminds me how awful the ad is. No offense to the folks that made it, I’m sure they did the best they could with what they were given, but it’s about the most blatantly misleading (legitimate) ad I’ve seen in recent memory. Full transparency, I’m not counting random Instagram ads with obviously false claims. I’m counting real ads from real brands… and this one is real icky.

Okay, let me back up a little. I was getting this ad (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, here’s the ad) a lot before the show aired. It’s a pretty exciting ad, shows past performances and a slew of really big nominated talent (Benson Boone, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, Chappell Roan, Hozier, Kendrick Lamar, Lady Gaga, Morgan Wallen, Post Malone, Sabrina Carpenter, Shaboozey, SZA, Taylor Swift, and Zach Bryan) and calls-to-action to vote, watch live, streams (depending on when and where you’re watching).

I remember watching the ad and catching the phrase “nominees include” before they rattled off the big name talent as a little weird. You get the impression that they’re involved, they’ll be there, fans can not only vote for their favorites, but they’ll likely see them win, perform, or at least attend. That was the impression I was left with, but again, something felt off.

Well, when the actual show aired, I was surprised (or maybe I shouldn’t have been) that all but Boone, Shaboozey, SZA, and Eilish skipped out. This means, all but 4 of the 14 names promoted in the commercials completely ignored the awards show. The artists that folks voted for and likely tuned in for were not present. And only 1 (Benson Boone) actually performed. Shaboozey presented an award. SZA won and accepted an award. And Eilish did a pre-recorded video acceptance speech (which I’m sure was less than satisfactory for her fans).

The AMAs (sorry) have never really been the most relevant awards show on the calendar but hadn’t even existed the last few years (on hiatus since 2022). So there weren’t many people super hungry for the comeback and I’m sure many were left even more annoyed after what was actually delivered.

Socials have already sounded off in a big way about the lack of star power, the pretty dated performers, muting crowd reactions for Taylor Swift, and the fact they only gave out a handful of awards. Like the whole point of this show in particular is to see the most relevant musical stars of the day… and it was anything but.

But my point of frustration (or maybe confusion?) isn’t about the content of the show per-se, it was the way the show was marketed and then what they delivered. It wasn’t just an unfortunate miss. It was an intentional misdirection. The producers of the show had to have known who was going to be showing up. The fact they continued to air this commercial (with clever, deceptive language) knowing that ~80% of those stars would not only not be having a clear moment on stage let alone even go, is beyond the pale of acceptable marketing. It’s downright malicious. They had these audiences believing they’d get to see their favorite artists either perform or present or win an award or at least be present… so audiences tuned in. And what they got was a bait-and-switch. What they got were performances they didn’t expect nor want, a handful of awards, some influencers, some acceptance speeches, confusion, disillusionment, and disappointment.

And worst yet, they’re still airing these commercials and asking people to stream the show. Even after all of the backlash and obvious manipulation, they are still using airtime to falsely promote a subpar show. So every time I see this commercial, knowing what I know now, it riles me up a little. Because this is the kind of stuff that makes people lose trust in brands and marketing in general. 

People have a natural inclination to be skeptical of ads, we’re just wired (or have lived experiences that make us this way) to question things that look and feel too good-to-be-true. But usually, even though ads may exaggerate or there’s a pretty obvious sheen being used, what’s ultimately delivered is within the realm of expectation (obviously not always, but for most trusted brands, this is the case). So when a trusted brand (like the AMAs) uses marketing to play in the faces of their audiences in such an egregious way, it not only all-but-ruins its reputation and relationship with their fans but distorts the perception of marketing at-large – just another misleading ad in a forever growing sea of misleading ads that’ll leave us even more disenchanted and skeptical.

So, that sucks. But instead of existing to complain, let me try to learn from this experience and do my part to add back some respect on marketing’s name. What I’ve learned (because I felt this myself) is that trust is just about our most valuable asset – a long and consistent bridge to build, so easy to destroy, and once it’s destroyed, incredibly hard to rebuild. Before customers are even customers, brands are building the foundations of trust. There’s a certain amount of trust that customers have as they make their first purchase or interaction. And it continues to build as they interact and the relationship deepens. Trust is what leads to more purchases, loyalty, advocacy… trust is everything. And when a brand knowingly and so obviously presents a narrative and delivers something so far off from expectation, they not only disrespect their consumers, their fans, they prove why they never really deserved it in the first place. Love forever lost. 

Lots of grace is given to brands, especially today, where being authentic and more off-the-cuff is appreciated. So brands are going to have some missteps but it’ll all come out in the metaphorical wash. We swing big and sometimes we miss or hit a foul. But this was such a mess, the AMAs should probably be asked to exit the stadium and stay home for awhile.