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Asking “Who is Q?” is like asking "Who is James Bond". Is it Daniel Craig, Roger Moore, the screen writer, Ian Fleming, the director, the producers, the cinema, the projector operator, the stunt double, the special effects guys, the distribution company... 1/
the original MI6 spy who was the inspiration... Or whoever holds the copyright to the franchise. The reality is that they all have a role to play. None of it happens in isolation. 2/
It's a project. A collaborative creation. 2.5/
Saying that Q is “the Watkins” is like saying that Bond is Sony/MGM/Universal. They help distribute it, certainly, and may have some say in the content, but there’s a lot more to it that. They didn’t invent it, they didn’t write it, they didn’t develop it. 3/
Blaming its rise on purely organic factors is like saying that cigarettes are popular because nicotine is addictive and people want something to do with their hands while they’re standing around or socialising. Those are both true, but 4/
If we hadn’t acknowledged the influence of advertisers and taken steps to mitigate it, many more would still be smoking and dying of lung cancer. Marketing matters. 5/
If guerilla advertising began appearing in graffiti spots around town, we could explain that in terms of hip-hop culture, disaffected youth, the price of spray paint... That's not inconsistent with being commissioned by an agency on behalf of a brand and made to look authentic 6/
And if the graffiti is about how great the brand is, and sales for that brand began to mysteriously skyrocket after the campaign, it should raise suspicions. People do like brands of course, but this requires a lot of work. 7/
People who say it was an operation which was helped by Russia are not denying any of the domestic organic factors. Those are the very elements this op has exploited. We need to make sure that we are understanding the full scope of it to mitigate it most effectively. 8/8
I don't like tweet threads so here it is in one shot: (9)
