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Netflix To Hulu: "Welcome To Your Tape"

Carolyn L. Todd
April 18, 2017, 5:30 PM
Photo: Beth Dubber/Courtesy of Netflix.
Netflix just went there. There as in the no man's borderlands of bold Twitter jokes that toe the line between funny and offensive. And people are conflicted.
The streaming platform fired off a savage tweet at Hulu after their competitor dissed Netflix in a tweet. "Streaming only on Hulu. Not on Netflix. Try your free trial today!" Hulu tweeted alongside a clip of Hulu original shows. Netflix returned the volley with a joke based on one of there own hit series, 13 Reasons Why. "Welcome to your tape," Netflix wrote.
This 13 Reasons Why meme has been making the rounds since the show shot to popularity. It makes fun of the line Hannah Baker (Katherine Langford) repeats in the introduction of each of the dedicated tapes she made to explain why she decided to take her own life. We've already written about why they are inappropriate and insensitive. Do the same standards apply to a brand taking a saucy swipe at a competitor? That's up for debate in the replies to the tweet.
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"One this isn't funny??? please tell me 'welcome to your tape' isn't going to be a meme please stop trivializing suicidal thoughts," tweeted one person. Someone replied to that post with this: "unfortunately yeah it's already a meme like the awful "triggered" thing that lasted forever and was so disrespectful and ableist." Another critic wrote, "And netflix promotes suicide and even jokes about it.... distasteful." At the same time, a good number of people found the dig hilarious. People are tweeting GIFs in reaction to Netflix's post; someone even said the tweet "made my day."
But the best reaction has to be this exchange with Wendy's — yes, that Wendy's. The company actually has a hysterical Twitter feed and doesn't shy away from engaging other brands. A Twitter user replied to the original Netflix tweet, "@netflix trying to be savage like @Wendys but doing a terrible job at it." Wendy's weighed in on the issue with this: "Dunno, it's pretty solid and relevant to their brand. Doesn't get much better than that." It sounds like Wendy's is on team Netflix. Where do you come down on the issue? Is Netflix just being cheeky, or are they spreading a tasteless, insulting joke that needs to go away already?

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