‘Woke’ has become somewhat of a buzzword, particularly in the realm of film and television.
The idea of wokeness originates from a desire to foster inclusion and encourage social justice — an admirable cause, unless of course, it’s distorted or rendered ineffective.
When studios’ haphazard attempts at diversity lurch dangerously into tokenism territory, and when adverts become a mouthpiece for progressive ideology instead of product promotion, is it any wonder that the world has forsaken woke entertainment?
Aggravating Ads
There are numerous examples where woke adverts have spectacularly backfired, from using an LGBTQ+ influencer to promote beer in America’s Bible Belt, to hiring a trans woman who hadn’t undergone gender reassignment surgery to model sports bras. But if you want solid proof that wokeness leads to brokenness, look to Jaguar Land Rover’s most ‘polarising’ advert, released in November 2024.
The ad featured models of all sizes, races, ages and genders, and had no shortage of cringe-worthy quotes like ‘break moulds’ and ‘create exuberant’ — whatever that means. What it failed to do was display a single car. Slightly bizarre, considering it represented one of the world’s leading automobile manufacturers. The advert caused a colossal stir online and severely damaged JLR’s reputation. In May 2025, it emerged that the company had lost a quarter of its sales in 2024. A month later, that figure was updated to a staggering 97.5 per cent.
If brands are alienating their target audience to appeal to a small minority, then consumers have every right to turn their back on them. JLR’s mistake was believing that its customers care more about diversity and inclusion than they do about AJ-V8 engines and heated seats.
TV Tokenism
What comes to mind when you think of the hit show ‘Doctor Who‘? Sonic screwdrivers and Daleks, or pregnant men and drag queens?
Outraged viewers have accused the BBC of using Doctor Who to ‘promot[e] the cult of gender ideology’ by prioritising the inclusion of minority groups over its infamous aliens. When watching the latest series, you can’t help but wonder if the screenwriters were playing diversity bingo. Even the casting of Jodie Whittaker and Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor feels off. It’s as though the BBC suddenly realised after twelve iterations of the character that the Doctor has only ever been a white male. It makes you wonder what other boxes the creators are yet to tick in their pursuit of thoughtless ‘inclusivity.’ Instead of deciding which actor gets to play the iconic Doctor based on how well they perform during their audition, will casting directors insist that they be trans, Asian, or disabled — even if that means passing over a better actor?
Not only is this overbearing tokenism disingenuous, but it’s also falling on deaf ears. Fans are looking for state-of-the-art special effects and high-stakes intergalactic missions. They do not want to be educated about pronouns as if it were a PSHE lesson. There is a time and place for this kind of content, and it is not during a sci-fi show. Ultimately, Doctor Who’s ‘woke, boring’ storylines feel more like a superficial attempt by the BBC to meet diversity quotas, rather than a genuine commitment to producing decent plotlines. And now, this contagious disease has spread from Britain’s television industry to Hollywood.
Movie Madness
The latest woke monstrosity to hit cinema screens was Disney’s 2025 live-action remake of Snow White, starring Latina actress Rachel Zegler. If you are wondering why someone of Colombian heritage was cast to play the famously pasty princess, don’t worry: so was I. You may even be tempted to liken this controversy to when people began questioning why Halle Bailey, a 20-something-year-old Black singer and actress, was cast as Ariel in The Little Mermaid. However, the two instances are not quite the same.
The criticism Bailey’s casting received in 2023 was wholly uncalled for, because when we think of what makes Ariel, Ariel, it is not the colour of her skin; rather, it’s her mermaid’s tail, her inquisitiveness and her desire for adventure. The same cannot be said for Snow White’s protagonist. I mean, the clue is literally in the title. Both the 1812 Grimms fairytale and the 1938 Disney cartoon characterise her by her skin tone, which is said to be ‘as white as snow.’ And when the original princess was so devoid of any personality to begin with, altering her one defining feature arguably fundamentally erases the character’s identity and the audience’s desire to commit to the storyline.
Besides, why should any young actress, regardless of their race, be cast in a story with such questionable origins in this day and age? So much of the original tale was problematic. With its idolisation of pale skin, its ‘backwards’ portrayal of people with dwarfism, its ‘stalker’ love interest and its ‘unconsensual’ kiss, Snow White should have been left to fade from public consciousness, never to be revisited. But no. Whether it was a desperate money-grab or a futile attempt to make the fairytale more palatable for a modern audience, a remake went ahead, wilfully ignoring the hornet’s nest that has existed all along.
Go Woke, Go Broke!
Let’s be clear: not every film or show that features someone from an underrepresented background is ‘woke.’ For example, Slow Horses’ Louisa Guy is Black. John Wick: Ballerina’s Eve Macarro is Latina. And both Drive-Away Doll’s Jamie and Black Doves’ Sam are gay. Yet, not a single one of these characters is paraded about as though their creators are trying to prove how inclusive they are. They are simply allowed to exist in the canons they feature in, without making a ruckus about their race, gender or sexuality. If you want diversity in the TV and film industry, this is how you do it: quietly, but purposefully.
How come? Because evidence suggests that woke entertainment fails astronomically. With ‘Doctor Who’ losing millions of viewers, and woke remakes like Snow White, Superman and Ghostbusters all tanking at the box office, people are clearly fed up with tokenism and its adverse effects on artistic output.
Having greater representation of marginalised groups on our screens is a good thing. But when we settle down to watch our favourite movies or TV shows, we want to be entertained — not have certain ideologies shoved down our throats.
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