Inde Navarrette, the breakout star of ‘Obsession’, has some blunt advice for Hollywood about winning back Gen Z moviegoers. Appearing on ‘The Kyle Buchanan Show’, the actress argued it’s not just about original storytelling — studios also need to stop force-feeding young audiences corporate messaging on the big screen.
Inde Navarrette (Credits: Variety)
Inde Navarrette: Gen Z Wants Movies Without Product Placement
“Gen Z just wants to go to something that they don’t feel like they’re being sold,” Navarrette said. She added that young viewers are tired of ads in movies and product placement, calling it exhausting to constantly feel marketed to during what should be entertainment.
She was fair about it, though. Navarrette noted that Gen Z grew up with fun commercials they still quote — she name-checked State Farm and Aflac — so advertising itself isn’t the enemy. The problem is feeling sold to inside the theater experience. “We don’t want to be sold. We want original stories,” she said.
Hollywood’s Gen Z Theater Problem
Her comments land at a time when Hollywood is actively wrestling with how to get younger audiences back into theaters. Studios have spent years stuffing films with brand deals and cross-promotions to offset production costs, and Navarrette’s point is that the strategy may be backfiring with the exact demographic theaters need most.
If Gen Z’s message to Hollywood is this simple — original stories, no corporate slop — it’s worth listening to.
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Source: Variety — read the full story there.
