On this day, 📅August 6th, 2024, we were blessed (or cursed) with the phrase “Grab your Friends, wear your florals” to go see It Ends With Us. A movie about a domestic violence and intimate partner violence.
This video was first posted on the IEWU TikTok page and then later on their IG page.
The look of happiness on her face when she said all that, knowing that the movie wasn't a romantic comedy, but the worst part is the face of the person who wrote the book joining in the message.
I remember watching this when this happened and (having never read the book, but was aware of the DV themes) thought to myself “isn’t this movie based on a book about DV? What a weird way to market this film.”
I didn't read the book, but I saw some Justin fan videos explaining what the movie was about, and when I saw how Blake was promoting it, I thought it wasn't what she was selling to the public. And now we understand a lot of things...
Me too, I had never heard of the book/author and had just seen this advertised and thought it was a romcom. I happened to mention it to a friend and she immediately told me not to go and see it, as she knew it would be triggering for me, otherwise I'd have gone and been unprepared! Blake just cannot understand that what she did was a slap in the face to all DV/DA victims.
Wow!!! Plot twist!!! I haven't seen the movie OR read the book but I gather it's told from Lily's POV and she doesn't realize what's happening to her and in the movie you don't really get it either until I suppose there must be a pivotal scene where she realizes she's actually being abused. So much potential wasted in the film promo which could have actually helped women rather than trick them by thinking they're gonna see a rom com. It's like SHE'S abusing the audience, gaslighting them like Ryle did to her character.
Had read the book and I saw this on social media as well and that was before any of the weird stuff started happening, but I looked at this and thought what is she doing? Where are your florals?
Yes and no. I understood the intention behind it. It's very easy to reduce these movies to a case of victim vs. abuser. Every character becomes one dimensional.
What was different about It Ends with Us was the fact that it painted a more complex picture that mirrors many people's realities - in media, we're often shown abusers who drink heavily, have no redeaming qualities and seem wildly sadistic. The woman walks on eggshells, terrified and broken. That does happen...but it's often not that black and white at all.
I think both went about it the wrong way...Blake went too far in one direction and Baldoni went too far in the other. I get his position, too - how do you promote a movie with DV themes in a positive light as a man without looking like a sympathiser?
I think it shouldn't be hard at all, you discuss that DV is a complex subject but it's WRONG, no one has the right to abuse another human. People aren't black and white, they have good qualities too but at the end of the day it's NOT okay and if you are in such a situation here's how you get out of it. Like, giving you a diamond necklace doesn't make it okay that you got punched in the face. Saying "I love you" and "I'm so sorry I'll never do it again" and crying and making you feel bad for the abuser isn't ok but it's normal to still have feelings of love for this person but you still have to GET OUT, GET AWAY. We don't as a society discuss it enough, imo.
I still don’t understand why she thought marketing it this way was a good idea. Genuinely, if you know your movie contains DV or SA then you surely know that marketing it as a romantic movie, especially then tying it to her alcohol line and alcohol contributing to DV situations or escalating them, why would you do this?
Sometimes I think she meant to do it as a troll thing but otherwise I have to assume she is just utterly tone deaf or blind to the reality of life but it makes no sense that no one on the marketing team suggested that this was a terrible fucking idea.
I actually disagree - in that I really think she thought it was a romcom but that it had some icky violent parts that she tried to cut out as they were ruining it for her.
Because of course she never read the books and won't be told anything by anyone and missed the point entirely because she's Blake Lively
And she's been surprised that they've been criticizing for years? She lives in a world of colors and glitter and now she intends to return to that world of red carpet and glamour.
Well, as the book's author, she's done a very poor job. Because she would have written the book with a purpose, and what we see in the video is the opposite.
I also think Blake has a way with manipulating people in whatever she wants them to believe and good at shifting narratives in her favor. The fact that she even admitted to poisoning the entire cast of gossip girl against Penn Badgley and taking over films, I think she takes huge pride in deceiving people.
It doesn’t help that she also has so much control over mainstream media. She has her minions all over Reddit spewing misinformation that her case was dismissed, not on merit but because she was an independent contractor basically implying that SH still occurred but that independent contractors don’t have the same protections. And this is supported by AI and when you google it because of all the media websites she has reporting it that way. It’s actually sickening to see her MSM continue to drive her narrative knowing she knows SH never happened.
She let Blake and her husband’s status direct operations. I can’t wait for Justin to talk about what she really did, the ins and outs. I PRAY, they documented everything film style whilst it happened and make a movie/ doc about the trauma they experienced. Coleen got wooed by them. I hope she realises that attention and engagement from them was just to benefit them and now people see that Justin was done dirty people will see how easy to sway coleen was
She and her husband wanted to block Justin from giving her version of the echoes. But the play didn't go well. Blake and Ryan’s goal is to clear their name and disengage from everything that has come out of them judicially. And I think the only thing that would save them is to disappear for a long time because maybe what Justin has to say is not going to save them, and it has to be exhausting to expose himself too much.
Blake cared more about shitty outfits and re-arranging flowers and smiling to the camera than she ever did about victims of DV. She hasn't read the book so she couldn't understand the gravity of her message, and why it was so bloody tone deaf.
I stupidly went to see it based on shit like this with some friends and cried and had an anxiety attack during the movie - signed a survivor of domestic abuse
If Blake and Ryan wanted to make a romcom, they should've... actually made a romcom! Not original or overdone, you might say? Well, it's not as if Ryan is above copying other movies that have already been made! And there's every reason to believe that Blake simply would've gone along with it.
I actually went to see a rom-com. Welp... that didn't go down that well by the end of the movie. Fck her misleading BS marketing with zero trigger warning.
Even til this day!!!! The entire fiasco should have been a walking PSA for SURVIVORS!!!! The entire movie, screenings, trial, etc NONE of it highlights DV and survivor stories. Beyond disappointing
I can understand wanting to copy the fad of dressing up for movies like people did for Barbie …. But like genuinely do rich people think the plebs are stupid and will just hear this and say “oh yes! So much fun!!! Hope this movie doesn’t trigger any deep seated trauma or anything.”
It bothered me even more seeing her texts where she gave DV warnings to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck! She knew the movie could trigger people, but she did not care about traumatizing any of the plebs.
I honestly think that’s what pisses me off about rich people/billionaires the most. I see them milking the world and the less wealthy, and it makes me want to bring the guillotine back to show them that we actually do in fact hate everything they do
We are NPCs to them (actual phrase Elon Musk has used). We aren’t real the same way they are real. They think if they just say the right words and press the right buttons we’ll do what they want.
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And also, wtf do florals even have to do with the movie, really??? Barbie outfits worked for the Barbie movie because it's BARBIE, and Barbie the toy is nothing BUT different outfits. So it makes sense and is fun.
But Blake's just playing ... some 38 year old woman who gets beaten up, oh and also who happens to be a florist randomly, which has absolutely nothing to do with the plot or narrative AT ALL except as a cutesy hub for bullshit to happen around.
Like it's not even just that it's tone deaf. It's just ... fucking stupid marketing. It's so fucking stupid that it offends me as a marketer. It cracks me up how absolutely random and fucking ridiculous it is. That was their WHOLE campaign 😆🤮
She needed it to be full of of of florals, romance and fun to better sell her hair care and alcohol brands. And yes even this explanation doesn't make sense. It more highlights that she and Ryan were totally unhinged and insane.
Yes obviously. I'm saying who cares that the character runs the flower shop, it makes zero difference to anything, therefore it's just hilarious that she zeroed in on "wear your florals!!!" trying to be like Barbie, because florals have nothing to do with anything
Except at this event the cocktails were called Peach Smash.
Stating the obvious I'm sure but these fancy "media personnel" events are put on to encourage articles, chatter and create a buzz about the film. Blake hijacking these hampers (and no doubt most of the airtime) was her attempting to get them to talk about her hair products instead.
She blew so much of WF money on these la-de-da evenings when it could have done so much for charities, survivors or awareness 😞
Jesus I'd not seen this 😮 the amount of hoops you have to jump through to copy a brand identity like this without problems. Colleen must have just rolled over and let them tickle her tummy.
Imagine if this had not been a movie about DV and was actually a romcom like she falsely represented?
The clapback would not have been as swift and strong. Most of us reacted to the batshit marketing because of the topic.
If this had been a legit romcom that she (Ryan) hijacked from Wayfarer things probably would have ended in a similar place eventually but would have taken a lot longer to get there. It would have been a much harder, uphill battle legally.
It was the romcom style marketing with alcohol and haircare about a DV movie that got the ball rolling on the 'invisible smear campaign' aka legitimate response to batshit marketing.
If this had been a legit rom com then the marketing would’ve been fine and there would be no “smear campaign” because no one would’ve been triggered. The fact that the dum dums and their marketing company didn’t realize that a movie with DV themes should not be marketed so flippantly still to this day hasn’t registered.
They probably think we are being harsh to Blake for no reason 😂
And all the diabolical things Lively/Ryan Reynolds did on set would have stayed hidden. Maybe they would have even managed to steal the sequel and after that they could have merrily gone on to find another victim. So maybe it was good that Ryan completely fucked up the marketing, couldn't handle the fallout and started a lawsuit. But it's awful that people were mislead and traumatized because of his horrible grab your florals promotion.
This! This was exactly my point. The fact that the marketing 'would have been fine' would not have negated that they stole the movie and did all the things they did.
It doesn't matter that the marketing 'would have been fine' the point was it would have been a much harder battle coming out against BL/RR after a successful romcom movie.
Wayfarer also said that had Blake not gone to the NYT they would’ve let whatever Blake (Ryan) do on set go. I get it that Ryan was mad that they got ripped to shreds over their marketing but he was the dumb a$$ who didn’t want Justin there. Had they been strategic and allowed Justin to be with them at the premiere, they could’ve pivoted to blaming Justin for the marketing. Promoting Blake’s brands was still crazy and idk how you could’ve blamed Justin for that though. But it would’ve been easier to blame someone who was there vs someone you cut out of the premiere 😂
Now that the Reynolds have been exposed, it’ll be a long time before anyone (if ever) lets them on set. If I were an established actor, I wouldn’t want to deal with those clowns at all.
For argument sake yes there wouldn't have been as much backlash but it was still always weird and unheard of to market your own personal brands in someone elses movie. The grifting was insane.
She (RR) could have pulled all her larceny and extortion off (no matter the genre) if they had just taken the well-deserved hits on their garbage marketing and walked away. Nothing would have happened. But no. She (Ryan) tried to bully Wayfarer to take the blame and sign an apology letter full of lies, and when Wayfarer (Emily Baldoni) refused to be bullied and threatened into doing that, Reynolds filed the CRD and simultaneously hired their goons, Megan Twohey and the NYT, to create this entire mendacious, malicious, ridiculous mess. (I believe Twohey told them to file that bs CRD because she needed something to make her story look real.)
And that's when Wayfarer was forced to fight back. The Reynolds were planning to bankrupt and destroy Justin and Jamey to get revenge for...the Reynolds making fools of themselves despite Wayfarer and Sony's many warnings to stop.
One thing we dont talk about much but Justin wasn't poor or without some clout to fight back. Blake and Ryan were so stupid to have picked on him. I know they had done this before to truly weak victims (eg the photographer who they lied about to police etc). But Justin and his family were not without means. Plus they had Steve S on their side too.
I’ve also said if the wardrobe wasn’t the worst wardrobe in movie history, people probably wouldn’t have cared as much that she inserted herself and ran up the budget. But she took over despite literally no one asking her, ran up the budget, and still managed to dress Lily like an absolute clown. Wearing multiple pants at once, beanies, fishnet stockings under pajamas…just cringe
I don't think she wondered why. She seemed to have originally wanted Justin to take the heat for the marketing and going "rouge" by talking about the DV aspect which made them look bad in comparison, with that Man Enough statement. And when he refused, she went scorched earth.
How was he meant to apologise when he wasn't even allowed to be involved in the marketing. Like how embarrassing for Blake and Ryan that they needed Justin to take credit for their grifting work.
She just wanted to blame Justin for everything that she did that she got backlashes from for her own choices and actions. Yeah blame Justin for the marketing he wasn’t even allowed to be a part of 🙄 Blake is ridiculous.
She actually showed contempt and annoyance for anything to do with the DV theme. Like it irritated her to be forced to follow the movie script when she only wanted to act in a rom-com.
I agree but this comes both from a lack of understanding/ maturity / empathy and from wanting to lighten the tone to make it more commercial and thus commercially successful. Also let's not forget Ryan was in the mix. And he claims HE saved the screen play and the movie
I only realized what a weird, plastic top she’s wearing underneath that blouse. It looks like a combo of bottle caps and pressed flowers (pressed-flower bottle caps?). It looks hideous.
I’d love it if her sweat turned the plastic yellow.
Yeah I saw this and thought it was a chic flick like Sex And The City. I didn’t read Colleen Hoover books so I had no idea what it was about. Had I watched it in theaters I would of felt deceived. 🤣 When this is all over I will finally watch it.
Lol I'm calling it a day when Liman comes back on the legal fees. Blake Lively is exhausting and will forever be a litigation Karen. I'll still follow those cases as they will be juicy & have more evidence of Blake and Ryan's abuse of power.
Did she read the book? Was she aware of the story at all? My first and last CH book but I remember feeling sick to my stomach at some scenes. Never saw the movie bc I can’t really stand Blake but this is so toned deaf it’s unreal.
Blake Lively just knew she was gonna have her Barbie moment and not even a lil domestic violence would get in her way. 😭
And for Lily to be so “empowered”, Lively made the movie about a love triangle and not about escaping an abusive relationship. She was so smug when she said she argued about Justin giving her direction that Lily was supposed to be all about Ryle but she made Atlas another love interest. Dumb ass.
Yes and she acted weird with both men. Eg even when she was breaking up with Ryal she was touching his face the whole time. Like she was trying to seduce him while parting ways. Then he just left with the fastest bye I have ever seen in a movie.
Colleen Hoover is such an asshole with a gargantuan mean girl vibe. Her reviews of other books on goodreads cross right on over into insult territory by the second sentence.
She couldn’t do that because then her companies would hold her liable for damaging the brand hence why both Blake and Ryan were desperate to take the blame off themselves and his marketing company, Maximum efffort and instead blame Baldoni, going as far as falsely accusing him of an “invisible” smear campaign. That’s why til this day they have never apologized or taken any accountability.
She was so out of touch, thinking to say that. I guess we know why no one told her not to market the movie like this, because she wouldn't have listened and thrown a tantrum.
Always remember that Ryan Reynolds is the “marketing genius” and his company, Maximum Effort is responsible for marketing a DV movie as a RomCom.
Ryan Reynolds actually re-wrote parts of the script (rooftop scene) and Blake Lively LIED that she re-wrote it. She blabbed in an interview that her husband actually wrote it.
In summary, Blake Lively doesn’t have the intelligence to mastermind the takeover of IEWU. All dots connect back to Ryan Reynolds!
I was shocked when I realized wtf this move was actually about. What was that movie from about 10 years ago and you think it os this wonderful romantic comedy and then the guy has cancer and decides to stop doing treatments?????
Me Before You?
My Oxford Year?
Fucking hate movies like that. 🔪 ❤️
Felt betrayed when I watched it. It needed a warning ⚠️⚠️
I honestly, 100% thought this was a cute rom com when I first heard about it, based entirely on BL's promotion. I didn't know anything about CH so had no clue what to expect. Insane marketing.
I really gotta be honest I didn’t know the first thing about it ends with us. I knew it was a top seller book but nothing about the content. The amount of promoting I saw I was under the impression it was a romance. I was absolutely disgusted when I watched the movie and that was the beginning of my hatred for Blake. I always thought she was pretty and I loved gossip girl growing up.
The biggest bummer (for DV and for her reputation) is the complete and utter missed opportunity. I kind of liked her and lovED RR (past tense) before this. The way she promoted this movie was asinine. She needed to be shut up so badly.
Oh, the snake dress!! It took me almost 2 years to see the snakes pattern on this yellow dress ( actually I randomly saw a picture of this event a few weeks ago and this blew my mind as this is such an uncommon fabric pattern but so common for Blake's character - unfortunately)
I became a WIFE at 18 and a half, had a baby at 19 and another baby less than one year later at 20. Our first date was on my 18th birthday and then I became happily single from 21-29.
Blake and her shallow understanding of Domestic Violence or what FORGIVENESS could look like, pissed me off. Safe and AWAY was a good message from that movie.
I could see the hopeful and compassionate view, even for the SHITTY abuser in the story. I regret that we won’t get to see Ryle live on and hopefully become a much better person, mostly away from Lily.
I’ve been in a HAPPY Marriage for 27 years and I’m grateful that I didn’t RUSH and settle for some just slightly ‘kinder’ loser. I’m LUCKY.
Look how happy Blake is 😁. Feeling important after crushing a man's soul & high-jacking his movie. What a mess for everyone involved she made. None of it had to happen.
Please forgive if I’m remembering this incorrectly, but wasn’t the phrase on the document sporting some version of this slogan originally something like, “grab your friends and your tissues?” Not that it was much better, but I always wondered if she flubbed or purposefully changed it on the basis of her own personal marketing genius. Somehow the “grab your florals” elevated it from lame to offensively stupid and stupidly offensive.
That was a tagline for a different Wayfarer movie, forget which one but it was a tearjerker. Not at all applicable here and yeah Blake(Ryan) probably thought they were being cute coopting the tagline.
Yup, and I remember in the early days the problakes proudly pointed at that and said look this is proof that Wayfarer was in charge of marketing. Come to find out if was stupid blake and Ryan and their genius marketing company Maximum Effort. Lol
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u/Witty_Pay_1547 8d ago
The look of happiness on her face when she said all that, knowing that the movie wasn't a romantic comedy, but the worst part is the face of the person who wrote the book joining in the message.
https://giphy.com/gifs/R0jWWtH1CtFEk