Suggestion for Netflix - User Selectable Genres

Catherine Austin Fitts posted a complaint on her blog about the recent Dexter Netflix envelope ad.

"I was dismayed to open my latest netflix and see an ad for Showtime’s show Dexter: The Return of Americas Favorite Serial Killer. It is hard enough to create a decent home and community, without inviting into it a mailing that glorifies serial killers. Please rethink your ad policy. I can chose to not watch shows like Dexter and I can ignore their ads on the highway. It is a completely different matter to find that I have allowed this ad into the intimacy of my own home.

I'd like to take the idea of "opting out" of violent movies on Netflix and suggest that Netflix let users select the genres that they can see on the website. I'm sure that some users don't want to be exposed to horror (like my wife), sexually explicit, foreign/subtitled, violent, gay or lesbian, sports, children's movies, etc.

Netflix already lets you set the "Maturity Level" (Account Profiles under Your Account), but would the experience be different if you only saw the categories of movies you were interested in?

Update: I have an open mind and I think I've happily rented from most genres, but some people really dislike (or great freaked out) by some categories, and we should respect that. The point is that Netflix could personalize the website to suit anyone's taste in movies. It also might be easier to find movies if the site only showed you the genres you were truly interested in.

I did forget "sexually explicit" (thanks, Fattyjoe) and added it to make sure I had sex and violence covered.

Comments

[netflixgrrl]

Perhaps this person would prefer that Netflix raise their prices to allow him and his family and other users to choose their advertising? I hardly even recognize these ads, I rip them off and throw them away. That would be like saying that an advertisement for a show on FOX after 9pm could be promoting porn or at the very least promiscuity because they show ads for Victorias Secret. I know it is slightly different but to take offense to an advertisement for a show you don't like or agree with is silly to me. Did Netflix have ads for Weeds? Doesn't this then promote drug use? Or Californication promote random acts of sex? I don't know... it's all just TV to me. Like it or not, just throw the ad away.

[Josuah]

You can also rate entire genres, and giving a genre 1 star is likely to make it so you won't get recommendations from that genre. You could still find those movies if you searched or browsed extensively, but you wouldn't get recommended those movies.

[machinegunn]

How absurd. Just throw the ad away. "allowed this ad into the intimacy of my own home" sounds like something I'd read in The Onion.

[Lamont]

How truly pathetic! If we close our eyes then maybe the things that make us "uncomfortable" will just go away. These ads appear in newspapers, magazines, TV supplements etc. I think this hyper-sensitivity is over the top and a sad, sad commentary on the future of our country.

[fattyjoe]

I agree with these above comments. Also I think it's a little strange that you said "gay or lesbian" as opposed to something like "sexually explicit," even though you wrote sports and children's just to make everything even.

[MCWHAMMER]

Tell that woman, and her 3 reader blog to kiss my butt :P

What a stupid complaint about Netflix. Don't let your kids open the envelopes woman! If you're that worried about it. I'd like to see what movies she rents from Netflix. You think they're all G Rated fun? Doubt it.

[walkallday]

I wish you could eliminate DVD's entirely - just check some box and you'll never seen it on the site again.

[prozac]

Big Baby...this is what is bothering you? An ad...try having a cop from Fort Lee with a major attitude problem pull you over and try and find a reason to ticket you just because he is an awful human being. Just quit the service and stay in your bubble. Man did that really annoy me. I blame you for the drink I'm about to take.

[chicken]

Yeah, I ran into a lady in the grocery store and I had my netflix w/ me: she complained self righteously that she would "never be a NF user since they use the word freakin' in their ads."
Seriously? Freakin'? Give me a break. This same woman said she boycotts Bounty paper towels & wrote the company because of those ads where the kid sprays orange soda on the mom. This lady complained that it was "not morally right to have a company support such abberant behavior in children."
Man, get a life you self-righteous people. Be a grownup and just ignore it. It's not hurting you nor anyone else.

[d3vkit]

This hypersensitivity crap is ridiculous. It's an AD. It's not invading your home, and desensitizing your family. Does she think your family doesn't know what a serial killer is? Or does she think her family will see the ad and suddenly decide that might be cool, killing lots of people.
"Well, I saw this ad for some tv show on a netflix envelope and just suddenly snapped; murdered them all."
And Dexter was a great show, anyway.

[Edward R Murrow]

So what if this person has a Netflix account for her kids use only and allows the kids to get the Disney movies out of the Netflix envelopes? Do her kids really have to be face to face with a serial killer ad?

[OdomZ]

Right... Edward you honestly think that her children go and get the mail, open them up and are responsible enough to even mail them back to Netflix?

This woman is WAY too easily offended and is the type of person that makes nearly every customer service person's life diffecult that she encounters. She better not turn on the tv because there are commercials FAR worse than a stupid envelope sized ad. BTW I got my Netflix and saw that ad and it is not offensive in the slightest unless you have a prior knowledge about the show and I doubt that this woman's children have ANY knowledge about "Dexter".

[Old Timer Too]

People have rights - all of us. That includes the right to chose what to see and what not to see and to control the content of material coming into the home.

Get with it. She isn't pushing her morality on any of us. She is asking for some courtesy and it appears that a lot of you don't want to give it to her.

What if the shoe was reversed and you were asking for something you wanted that the bulk of society thought otherwise about? Would you like it if they thought your point of view was (take a list of the words that people have used in this blog to describe this woman's attitude) express the same way?

At one time not that long ago, society would have soundly condemned many of you and praised the woman for standing up for her rights.

As to the woman in the supermarket, that is taking it too far. It is like boycotting all things Disney because ABC broadcast Ellen.

People do have rights - up to the point where those so-called rights violate mine. Never forget that and let the woman have some peace for expressing her thoughts on the matter. And yes, she does have the right to control what comes into the privacy of her own home. The rest of us do not!

[hclemente]

Actually Old Timer Too, no she does not have the right to demand that Netflix temper their ads to conform to her brand of morality. Netflix can put whatever ad they want as long it doesn't violate any laws. She chose to let Netflix into the privacy of her home by subscribing to it, so none of her "rights" have been violated. They didn't wrap the ad around a rock and throw it through her window. All she really has the right to do is terminate her subscription to Netflix, which is what all the other posts have been saying.

[prozac]

I agree 100% with hclemente and I have to say that there are things that I like that others hate and I don't want kids to hear or see certain forms of entertainment that I enjoy but I saw that NF ad just yesterday and the character had some blood sprayed on his face. There are ALOT WORSE things in your local mall that are being sold for Halloween which I love but come on. The ad was no big deal. If it was a pic of the character cutting some-one's head off or something like that then I would agree and side with her.

[eazyguy52]

She says she can ignore billboards but can't ignore that ad? I wonder what happens when she comes across an offensive ad in a magazine? No matter, to each their own I guess.

Anyway, since Showtime is having a free weekend, the ad worked because now I'll check the show out although I still won't subscribe to them. But if I like the show I may put the DVD in my queue. Has anybody watched this show before?

I wonder if she would be less offended if she knew that the premise of the show is Dexter's serial killing habit is actually tracking down and killing other serial killers? At least she may understand the double meaning and word play of "America's Favorite Serial Killer" of the ad now.

[chi_tino]

I find it sad that some people will not read reviews and then sit through an entire movie that offends them. We then get these kinds of Netflix reviews: "I was SHOCKED at the level of teenage hijinks in Porky's - I cannot believe that Netflix allows this to be sent through the US Mail!"

[Old Timer Too]

Like I said... Go back and read what she is saying - in the little blurb above, all she is doing is asking (nicely) that Netflix _rethink_ their policy. I don't know, but that is _not_ a _demand_ in my book.

But, you are absolutely correct - she can vote with her pocketbook and take her business elsewhere. She doesn't have to rent from Netflix. Regardless, the idea still has a lot of merit and would provide the _freedom_ for people like her (or us) to exercise her (or our) rights in selecting the kind of advertising we want to see in our red envelopes. It would take Netflix's selection system the next step higher. All I got was ads for how to make a better milkshake (sigh).

On people who are shocked and express dismay that Netflix allows??? - uh, that's the purview of the USPS and congress. While Netflix isn't the best at displaying the reasons for a rating, they are certain getting better with parental warning stuff for some of their listings.

As a personal note, I appreciate folks who take the time to thoughtfully write a comprehensive review. People who write that they were shocked, hated, or whatever, with no explanation. At least teenage hijinks says something, but you find hijinks in Disney films, too, so a better explanation is still in order.

And if Porky's was shocking, the reviewer should have watched Fast Times At Ridgemont High... and why isn't Phoebe Cates' Paradise on DVD?

[hawk5391]

It's just an ad, right? With a little box in the corner you can click to make it go away? Maybe instead of adjusting every single feature of the world to accomodate every possible taste, instead we should just petition God to allow for adjustable sensitivity meters for high-strung people. I'm writing to the pope today!

[Tim]

video stores were far worse for this. There were always the most lurid box art mixed in with kids movies in the new releases. Seems like this is easier. You can rip off that page face down and place it in your recycling without even seeing it. This is more control than we had in the past. Much ado about nothing.

[FredFredrickson]

Dear potential advertisers,

Advertise with us, Netflix, as your ad will appear in the homes of our millions of customers... oh except the ones who don't like ads. (which would be 100% of them). But don't worry, at least 3% won't bother to opt out, so really though, your dollars are going towards a good advertising outlet!

[barcodez]

I sure hope Blockbuster starts dividing its stores with 1-foot-thick floor-to-ceiling partitions so I can walk in and not have to even see the word "Classic". In case it offends my delicate sensibilities.

Or, I could just throw the ad away.