just imagine this
japhan
If this new Dan and Phil book’s Vegas chapter is called ‘What happens in Vegas…’ And the first and only page just says ‘Stays in Vegas.’ On it in the centre I’m throwing myself out a window
It’s gonna happen
Anonymous
What I want everyone to understand is that ‘Dan and Phil’ is a brand and a business, which means that it will be marketed, which means that we will be manipulated into buying whatever they are selling. DAPG, The Dan and Phil Show, the shop – these all contribute to ‘Dan and Phil’ the brand. Dan said they have had the book in works for about a year. If you think back one year, we had the ‘gay emoji’ and ‘Phil day’ (DAPG the channel was created in May 2014), later in the summer ‘Phantasia’ and the VidCon hug, later their SITC magazine descriptions of each other, and then the launch of DAPG and the shop. The order of the ‘checkpoints’ (shop, gaming channel, book, tour) was predetermined long ago (remember Louise’s shock at the secret notes in this vlog? ‘Colour coordinated’; ‘a lot of exciting stuff’). We have been groomed in preparation for this tour and book, which I think is the stamp on top that finalises ‘Dan and Phil’ as a brand. If you listen to that quote we talked about earlier,
D: Our book story began about a year ago. We were thinking about Dan and Phil, not ourselves, but specifically this world of Dan and Phil we’ve created here on YouTube; all of these videos and shows and events […]‘We were thinking about Dan and Phil, not ourselves but the brand, and thus we decided to make this book’. As I said in the post on richielife, Dan and Phil used a lot of scripted sales talk; the video itself was just a sales pitch. And, as I said, selling is manipulating, and I think that in this video a galore of skilled manipulation from the basic tricks to presenting the book as a gift to us (the ‘we did this for you’ approach) when in reality it is no gift at all to their choice of shipbaiting (memories of 2009, what happened in Vegas) to the ‘heart eyes’.
With all of this in mind, you must have realised by now that the sudden surge in ‘Phan’ that we have been wondering and talking about has not been about Dan and Phil being comfortable with ‘Phan’ or whatever, it has been a long, calculated grooming session that has led to this book and tour and will no doubt continue this Sunday. This is very basic marketing although detestable in a setting like this where Dan and Phil themselves have spoken against shipping in the past and the reality of ‘Phan’ is dubious (yes, it is still just as dubious as it were last week, nothing has changed, except that we have learned that Dan and Phil are excellent secret keepers; at one point they managed to simultaneously conceal the tour, the book, the shop and DAPG).
I want to ask all of you to recognise that what Dan and Phil are doing is grade A commercial manipulation. All the changes Dan and Phil have undergone in their demeanour and attitude towards Phan within the past year is a product of marketing strategy. I hope that you all take on a critical attitude when it comes to this book and tour and whatever Dan and Phil will do in the future. You can buy the book and you can go on the tour if you want, those are your choices, but I want that you guys all comprehend what’s going on first.
I apologise if this was a way too blunt of a way to talk about this, but unfortunately I myself am so disenchanted and frankly disgusted with this entire situation that I just wanted to share this ‘revelation’ quickly with you so that I can close this tab and think about something else for a while. If you feel betrayed, saddened, angry, disappointed or otherwise negatively about this, you are allowed to feel that way and definitely not alone. I think we all expected something different and created a sense of false security in the expectation that Dan and Phil would never lead us into corporate hell. If you feel like Dan and Phil are strangers to you, that is because they are. This whole ordeal is an extreme wakeup call to the harsh reality of modern YouTube culture and I hope that you all recognise and accept it for what it is. This commercial manipulation is a taboo, which it should not be. Talk about it and make the creators recognise it.
Please have a splendid day/night x
thinking about this makes me sad, but it’s true. this whole ordeal makes everything about this past year seem… fake? staged? i honestly feel a bit cheated.
please take time to read this and don’t dismiss it as “hate”, because that is not what this post is about.I feel like I’ve been completely sucked in, totally oblivious to this whole thing. After reading this response I cannot help but reflect and over analyse absolutely everything they’ve done leading up to the announcement;
creating a virtual child that they are ‘raising’ as if it was their own, the colossal wearing/using of merch in liveshows, videos, instagram pictures, etc; and lets not forget the Thinking Out Loud moment at the Brit Awards, only weeks before this bomb dropped.Whilst I still feel like theres an element of realness and purity of the whole thing, I’m feeling as if myself and every other fan have been blinded and brainwashed into believing that this is nothing but business and marketing. It does sadden me because I have been such a huge supporter of the two boys for so long (don’t get me wrong, this is not me deciding to completely boycott them and everything they make/do), but it does just make me re-think everything. As said above; I hope people do take time to read this and consider the possibility of it, do not take it as hate and feel the need to call the Phan defence squad, just take it on board and keep your eyes open for any more sneaky clues.
Even though it’s upsetting, props to them for being so clever.
I can only hope that Dan and Phil don’t let this course that they are taking make them more detached from their audience. I don’t want to be viewed as someone who only helps them make money.