‘Adopt Our Crew’ Strikes Back with #DontStreamOnMax Campaign
It’s been a couple of weeks since we last checked in on our friends at Adopt Our Crew, and honestly, we weren’t too surprised to see that despite their campaign to find Our Flag Means Death a new home not working out, this crew of tenacious folks has turned their hurt into something positive. They’ve been busy boosting solo projects of the Our Flag Means Death crew, promoting queer stories, and raffling off prizes for charities. Their latest stunt? To coincide with Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) annual stockholder meeting on June 3rd and in celebration of Pride Month, they’re relaunching the #DontStreamOnMax campaign on social media.
For those living under a rock, Max’s marketing tagline on social media is #StreamOnMax. So when the platform canceled its slate of critically acclaimed original series in early 2024—Warrior, Our Flag Means Death, Julia, Rap Sh!t, and The Flight Attendant— the #DontStreamOnMax campaign was born, making a lot of waves.
According to the Adopt Our Crew official press release, the goal of this campaign is to hold Warner Bros. Discovery and Max accountable and shine a light on the fact that the company is increasingly prioritizing existing IP and platforming racist and transphobic creators over shows that authentically depict queer and POC characters.
Now, you might think these folks are just talking out of anger due to the cancellation of their show, but no, they’ve done their homework and have the facts and numbers to prove that what’s said about Max is nothing but the truth.
In the past two years, Max has sadly become a leader in canceling queer media. GLAAD’s most recent “Where We Are on TV” report counted that 80 characters on 23 scripted streaming shows from 2023-2024 (24% of all LGBTQ characters on streaming) won’t be returning to TV due to series cancellations or endings. Now here’s the kicker, 17 of these characters (21%) were on Max shows, and nearly half of them were on Our Flag Means Death alone!
We’ve talked about this before, and we totally get where this campaign is coming from. Streaming services (and it’s not just Max) keep limiting new programming, treating TV shows like disposable products dictated by algorithms, and prematurely canceling inclusive stories.
How are folks supposed to get into new content if they’re always worried about whether a show will get a second season or not? 25% of US adults wait for a show’s finale before watching, with 27% of them citing worry about potential cancellation with no resolution as their reason for delay.
It’s Pride Month, and as WBD and Max start promoting the few queer-inclusive shows remaining on their platform, it’s worth pointing out that this is the same company that keeps championing J.K. Rowling, despite her recent transphobic and racist comments.
Through the #DontStreamOnMax campaign, Adopt Our Crew wants to make stockholders, subscribers, consumers, and the general public aware of how WBD and Max’s recent actions are pushing audiences away, resulting in subscriber and profit losses.
As a queer publication, we think it’s important to say that supporting this campaign doesn’t mean boycotting the other queer programming Max still has. That would be like shooting ourselves in the foot. Both things can coexist—we can support the #DontStreamOnMax campaign while also encouraging folks to check out the original programming they still have.
For us, it’s crucial that as content consumers, we use our platform to raise our voices and demand change. We need to make these companies see that every story, queer or not, deserves to be told in its entirety. We understand that, in the end, everything is just business, but how are these shows supposed to find their audiences if platforms keep axing them prematurely? It’s just not logical.
Overnight successes are rare; most shows build their fanbases over multiple seasons, with new viewers joining in as seasons progress. In this digital era, word-of-mouth promotion is key to boosting a show’s viewership, so it’s important to let these shows have their time to simmer with audiences. So let them have it!
Anygays, we want to give a big shoutout to the folks at Adopt Our Crew and all the fans of Our Flag Means Death for staying true to the show’s motto and turning poison into positivity. We wish them the best of luck with this new campaign. To bring about change, sometimes we need to fight a few fights. Let’s keep fighting the good fight together.
Seasons 1 and 2 of Our Flag Means Death are available to stream on Max and BBC iPlayer (UK only). Follow us on X and Instagram for all queer stuff!
Featured Image: Courtesy of Max.
