Fan Campaign

Synonyms:	letter writing campaign
See also:	Fan army
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Fan campaigns aim to influence decisions by TPTB. The are usually fan run.

Renee Levy portrays demanding Picard/Crusher fans, from PSST! Patrick Stewart & Star Trek (1995)

Barbara J. Caldwell portrays the an actor channeling the fans in a demand for more "Sexier Plots" for Geordi La Forge in Sax 'n' Violins (1995)

A fan campaign may aim to stop the cancellation of a beloved show, bring back a particular character or release a cancelled show on DVD.

This can be in the form of letter campaigns, organizing fans to buy billboards, ads in the industry publication "Variety," coordination in sending items to TPTB such as black roses , hashtags, and many more creative actions to get fans engaged in order to bring attention to their cause.

Another kind of fan campaign was raising funds The Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The original Star Trek fan campaign for renewal is probably one of the best known in the everyday world. It has inspired active and vocal cultures in many fandoms to protest pending cancellations and production values in their favourite sources. Another well known fan campaign took place in 1976, when Star Trek fans were credited with convincing then-U.S. President Gerald R. Ford to name the first NASA space shuttle orbiter after the starship Enterprise rather than Constitution as he had planned.

Examples of Fan Campaigns

See Category:Fan Campaigns & Petitions.

Sample Images

• 
  a screenshot from the 1990, "Mr. Little" Commercial for Quantum Leap
• 
  a 1987 ad in "Variety" paid for by Simon and Simon fans: "Earlier this year a group of us chipped in to put a quarter-page ad in Variety in support of Simon & Simon, which we think may have added weight to our letter campaign. Having gotten this far, we are thinking about placing a second one which would be used to thank the network for renewing the show and urging that it be given a full seventh season. To this end, if everyone who reads this zine can contribute $10 or $15, we will use it to buy space again - maybe even a half-page ad this time. Make your checks out to me personally and I'll see to the placing of the copy and see that all contributors receive a Xerox of it as it appears."
• 
  One example of a protest truck in March 2004, this one focused on Angel: The Series: "In an effort to bring attention of network executives and Hollywood movers-and-shakers to the campaign, a 10' x 22' billboard, mounted on both sides of a truck, began winding through the streets of Los Angeles vowing to "help the helpless"! The billboard contained a clear message to all who saw it, Angel fans will follow Angel to hell.. or ANOTHER network!" -- a schedule of stops is at Saving Angel Launches Aggressive Billboard Campaign!!
• 
  call for action for Spectre by Susan Sackett
• 
  from a 1987/88 fan campaign for Max Headroom
• 
  an ad by The Space:1999 Society, posted in Cleveland State University's student newspaper
• 
  This is the full-page ad that appeared in SciFi Magazine, purchased by fans, thanking Sony for issuing Forever Knight on DVD
• 
  Jericho ad
• 
  a billboard in Los Angeles by an anonymous group of fans campaigning to bring Tony Stark back to the MCU (2021)

See Fan Campaign/List.

Reactions

Some campaigns were conducted on the personal level. Here a fan-made button reads: Bring my show back. It was most likely worn to conventions and fan gatherings. Since so many shows have been canceled over the decades, the generic button could be reused again and again.

Fans write letters to TPTB because they feel very strongly about some aspect, and sometimes emotions and tactics overtake manners and commonsense. Fans are often told, by other fans, to practice the tactics for successful letter campaigns, ones that include politeness, logical arguments, and not to be too emotional. In the early days, fans were often told NOT to write about any fan club affiliation as that hinted at an organized motive and diluted their effectiveness.

For an example of a letter, see these detailed instructions.

See one example of fans discussing the effectiveness of a 2000 fan campaign at Fan Rebellion.

Effectiveness

It is impossible, aside from anecdotal comments, to gauge the success of the various letter and fan campaigns over the years. Information from the industry is most likely spotty and not reliable. Fans themselves were hopeful, but unsure.

The various PTB that encouraged fan letter campaigns also displayed a lot of mixed messages. On one hand, they vehemently encouraged letters, offering enthusiastic support, made "insider" promises about how success would bring fans what they wanted, and shamed fans who did not step up to the plate. But these PTB could also be, especially in hindsight or when letter campaigns became out of their control or negative, discouraging.

Some fans and PTB also point out that even what are considered successes, may not be a positive thing. As Spock said to T'Pring said: "After a time, you may find that 'having' is not so pleasing a thing after all as 'wanting."

Reactions to letter-writing campaigns were not always positive and not always seen in a positive light by those on the receiving end. Some TPTB felt them intrusive, bullying, something that took up valuable time and money, and more a nuisance than anything.

Star Trek

It is widely believed that the third season of Star Trek's original series was created due to fans' various letters and activities. Due to this triumph, Star Trek fans also waged numerous campaigns to alter plot points in the show, and later, the movies (more McCoy, no dead Spock...) with varying degrees of success.

Comments: 1970s

Some 1972 comments by D.C. Fontana:

Regarding STAR TREK, Paramount still has not committed itself to any answer on renewal of the show. But they continue to reveal interest in "off the record" meetings. Our friends at the studio tell us that they are enormously impressed by the quantity (and quality) of fan mail they continue to receive.

[...]

Both NBC and Paramount continue to receive a great deal of mail and have had to assign secretaries to the sole job of answering it. Nor has the amount of STAR TREK mail gone unnoticed by the network and studio executives, and it is bound to have an effect on future decisions.

From a September 1974 letter by Roddenberry sent to a fan and printed in A Piece of the Action:

We do indeed intend to use the original STAR TREK cast in a future motion picture or television series, and letters from the fans did a great deal to swing Paramount around to my convictions on this subject.

From a January 28, 1975 speech Roddenberry gave at Stanford University:

WHERE STAR TREK IS GOING. To answer that I'll have to first tell you a little about Star Trek fans. They are a lovely but rather peculiar life form which seems to be born with a typewriter in one hand and a roll of stamps in the other, which means to say they write letters constantly and thank God from our point of view, since Star Trek was saved from cancellation the second season by one million letters from the fans to the networks. They've been at it again, Paramount has suffered a year long deluge of mail demanding a Star Trek motion picture - they've finally cried "enough" and we are now concluding negotiations for a wide screen theatrical release Star Trek motion picture.

[...]

... somehow word got out to the fans, I don't know quite how, and the mail started all over again and it reached a point where the studio head called me, rather bitterly - it seems the fans had gotten his home address. It was actually taking him two hours every morning to go through his mail to find things like the laundry bill. And his demand to me was really simple - CALL THEM OFF - OR ELSE; which is rather frighten­ing... coming from the studio that made the Godfather. I will admit the fans can be annoying to television executives.

Comments: 1980s

From David Gerrold:

I don’t believe in letter campaigns. They don't usually work.

Yes, I know, it was a letter campaign that saved STAR TREK for a third season - I was actively involved in that campaign - but even though that campaign was eventually successful, NBC still worked its own particular revenge on the show and its fans by pushing it into the ever-popular "death slot” of Friday nights at 10:00.

But that one was the exception that proved the rule. Most other letter campaigns have failed - partly because the organizers did not understand the mechanics of letter campaigns, partly because they did not understand the internal decision making processes of their target institutions, and partly because their goals may not have been realizable in the first place.

For a letter campaign to work, the goal has to be something tangible - something that will catch the imagination of enough people to attract enough attention to generate enough letters to make a noticeable effect on the people who make the final decision.

And those letters have to be sincere.

Television networks, politicians, magazines, most large institutions are aware of the fact that a "letter-factory of forty determined fanatics can sometimes generate as much mail as a few thousand people. For a letter campaign to make any real impact, it is going to have to generate out about a million letters.

Comments: 1990s

In 1999, a fan wrote:

I'm really proud of the fact that I was one of the ones who wrote in when Bjo Trimble asked all the viewers to send letters asking NBC not to cancel the series after the second season. Maybe my letter made a difference, maybe it didn't, but I like to think that I helped to make the third season happen.

At least in one instance, a Star Trek: DS9 actor counseled fans to tone it down as their pleas to bring a character back to the show (after he'd been killed) was a turn-off:

The one thing I can say with fair certainty is that Vedek Bareil will not be back again. I am so sorry. There was apparently a letter-writing campaign to the writing department and as a result of that, he's definitely not coming back again. The writers were going, "this is enough, we don't want any more of this." So I would suggest a different tactic, if you were one of those people writing letters...a less vitriolic tactic, because they're really actually nailing the coffin shut right now, because of these letters. Because at the end of the day, they have the power to do that.

Joan Marie Verba also addressed this issue:

At Lunch with the Doctor, Sid [Alex Siddig, who played Bashir] confirmed what I also heard from another source at Paramount, and that is, that the producers/writers were thinking of bringing back Vedek Bareil, but due to receiving so much hostile mail on the subject, they have made a firm decision not to. Now, I am aware that many fans who want Vedek Bareil back wrote perfectly courteous letters, but apparently some did not, and, unfortunately, those letters were the ones that irritated the producers. So please remember: if you write to Paramount about Sid/Julian, or write with concerns about fourth season, be polite, be calm, be courteous!

Beauty and the Beast

See Fan Fervor and Dead Roses.

When a Beauty and the Beast (TV) fan sent her letter to CBS in 1990, she included a screw as a metaphor... "Enclosed you will find an example of how we, the fans, feel we have been treated by you, the writers, this season." -- from The Whispering Gallery #18/19 (March/April 1990)

The letter and other fan campaigns in Beauty and the Beast (TV) were intense and highly encouraged by the celebrities and showrunners themselves, and fans in turn constantly encouraged other fans. Addresses of sponsors, television stations, and other venues were almost a mainstay of fan publications. One example from March 1989:

The production staff at Beauty and the Beast, asks that you write and/or call your local CBS affiliate (the station that you watch Beast on) to show support for the show. Especially, let them know when you are mad about local preemptions and switchs in time. It would help to let them know that you appreciate the show, and support the local advertisers (if any).

In September 1988, George R.R. Martin relayed an idea to the editors of Beauty and The Beast: The Newsletter:

Why don't you do a poll of your membership? Have everyone vote on their three favorite episodes, and their three least favorite episodes, use a point system and publish the results. The totals could be fascinating, and would give us writers an interesting measure of what the fans respond to...

In April 1989, George R.R. Martin told a fan:

...that renewal still is 50/50. He said that he is staying optimistic and encourages everyone to keep writing, especially to Kim LeMasters. Should the show not be renewed, he said syndication/cable continuance would depend on (with the cost of production) a cost-effective deal being made quickly, as the cast and crew cannot be held but for a short time before they move on to do other things.

But despite this constant fanning of fan energies and fears, fans were also told these letters and calls were ineffectual. This was something that was stated very early on. In February 1989, Ray Faiola of CBS told fans:

...organized letter-campaigns do not have an effect because usually they identify themselves very easily and they really cancel themselves out as far as according a certain weight to the volume of mail. [...] there is definitely a broad distinction between people writing in individually and in organized campaigns. What doesn't carry a lot of weight is organized campaigns. They call attention to themselves immediately, as cleverly disguised as they may often be (laughter) — we've been in this business too long. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm of the relative few seldom outweighs the inevitability of the majority (of the many) out that we then pass along to our there in Neilsen land.

This was echoed later by George R.R. Martin. In In 1992, a fan asked Martin if Beauty and the Beast (TV) was brought back because of fans' letters and letter campaign.

We want to know how it really was....what's the truth?

Well, some of the fans... I see letters from them about how they saved the show at the end of the second season, and got them to order twelve, by writing letters or something like that, and of course, some of them feel that we betrayed them by then killing Catherine, or coming back differently. That's not the way it was. I mean, I appreciate the fans. They did a lot of work, they contributed a lot to the show. But I was there. The decision to not put us on the fall schedule and the decision to order 12 shows as a mid- season replacement was made the same day. Tony Thomas called me up, I was at home, and said 'They're not ordering 22 but they've ordered 12 as a mid-season replacement and they'll put us back on the air when the first slot opens up.' It was made in the same meeting. It wasn't like we were off and the show was dead and then all the fans got together and they wrote millions of letters and they poured in and CBS said 'Well, okay, we'll order 12.' That's not how it happened.

Didn't happen that way? See, you're exploding a fan myth. Well, the fans won't like it. (laughs)

Well... it won't be the first time or the last.

National Dark Shadows Rally Day

On May 8, 1991, fans of Dark Shadows, organised by Dark Shadows Festival (convention), ShadowGram (zine), and The World of Dark Shadows (zine), having sent thousands of postcards to the NBC, gathered at studios to request the show be scheduled on a non-weekend night. The gathering at Burbank included several members of the new cast: Lysette Anthony, Roy Thinnes, Michael Weiss, Ely Pouget, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Despite numerous rallies and a deluge of postcards, the campaign was unsuccessful.

Negative effects of fan campaigns

• see Controversy and Criticisms around BTS ARMY
• In an 2021 interview with the UK newspaper "Metro", actor Lucy Lawless mentioned, how a fan petition that called for Lucy Lawless to take over the role of Cara Dune on The Mandalorian after Gina Carano was fired for offensive tweets actually hurt her chances of working at another, "Star Wars"-related Disney+ project:

Well to be honest with you, I was already in discussions about something on – it wasn’t The Mandalorian – something Star Wars-affiliated,’ Lawless said.

‘It might have hurt me in some way, because then they couldn’t hire me because it would seem to be pandering to… I’m just guessing here, I don’t know anything, but in some ways, it can be unhelpful, because if they pander to this fan group, then how are you going to pander to every other fan group, do you know what I mean?

The actor continued, outlining how the hypothetical fan casting meant that she ‘became political’, despite having nothing to do with Carano’s exit.

I became political and I had nothing to do with the discussion, she said.

Nonetheless, she feels extremely appreciative of the fans who saw her as the ideal replacement for the character.

But that’s the way the world is and they meant it out of love, and I thank the fans for their fealty to me, she said.

I haven’t thought about that since, so it hasn’t given me any pain, but that was my thought at the time, like, ooh, this makes me look like a political appointment, and not an actress.

Meta and Interviews

• Meeting the Challenge by David Gerrold (1980)
• Pipeline Interview with Ray Faiola: Letters... and the Eye of the Beholder (1989)
• "Twin Peaks," "Quantum Leap" fans are undeniably devoted (1991)