Ever notice how when corporate giants go to war, they suddenly discover their deep concern for "customers" and "fairness"?
This week on Smart in Public, the Katies dissect the Disney vs. Google/YouTube TV standoff and spoiler alert: neither company gives a damn about you. What they do care about? Leverage, market control, and making sure you think they're the good guys while they battle for billions.
Most coverage of corporate disputes treats them like sports rivalries—pick a side, root for your team. We're taking a different approach: exposing how both companies weaponize "public interest" language while actively screwing over the actual public.
When unprecedented competitors with unlimited resources clash, "fair access" becomes a PR talking point, not a principle. And communications professionals need to stop pretending otherwise.
What we unpack:
🎯 The fairness theater - How both Disney and Google deploy "fair access" rhetoric while their actions prove customer experience is maybe priority #47
💰 When money isn't the issue - What happens when both sides have infinite resources and the dispute becomes purely about power and positioning
🏢 The customer care illusion - Why major corporations can't actually prioritize customers even when they claim to (and why that matters for how we communicate)
⚔️ Unprecedented competition dynamics - What changes when competitors are this massive, this resourced, and this committed to winning at any cost
📢 The PR strategy breakdown - How both sides are managing communications in this standoff and what that reveals about modern crisis comms
This isn't a negotiation failure—it's a glimpse into how corporate communications works when the stakes are existential. Both companies have unlimited legal budgets, massive PR teams, and sophisticated communications strategies. And yet consumers are still getting screwed.
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