Why does YouTube Erase Movie Trailers?: Is it Blood, Skin, or Quality?

Recently The Frozen Ground (2012) movie trailer was released and immediately taken down from YouTube, begging the question: why does YouTube erase certain movie trailers? Was it the trailer’s blood, skin or its quality? Even clips of The Frozen Ground trailer were taken down, including my own.

One of those clips was of Vanessa Hudgens dancing in her underwear at a night club. Was that the reason the clip and the trailer were taken down? Is Vanessa Hudgens stripping, is Vanessa Hudgens dancing, is the touted stripper Vanessa Hudgens, the former Disney star and Mouseketeer, really that offensive and objectionable?

The Vanessa Hudgens The Frozen Ground photos:

Vanessa Hudgens The Frozen Ground

Vanessa Hudgens The Frozen Ground

I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary or over-the-top in Hudgens’ stage moment but others seemed to. This movie trailer, like all the rest, was manufactured to garner attention for the film and it did.

Quality

The Frozen Ground trailer wasn’t the best trailer I have seen for a film so maybe that was the reason it was pulled by VoltagePicturesLLC. I thought the trailer’s gruesome nature made up for any structural quirks it might have had though but maybe I am wrong.

I do not know if YouTube asked VoltagePicturesLLC to take down The Frozen Ground trailer or YouTube did so because of complaints and said VoltagePictures didn’t want it online. It makes no diffenerce. There are only two reasons why it would be taken down: its skin content or its quality. It couldn’t have been the latter because why release an HD trailer (1080p) if you weren’t satisfied with its quality?

Money and Control

I have seen trailers for films released on YouTube where YouTube tells you that you are copyright infringing on the studio behind the film, the trailer is deleted, and your YouTube account is given one of three copyright infringement strikes. How is promoting a movie studio’s film for them and expending your sweat equity in the process infringing on them?

That happened to me with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Teaser Trailer. Every copy of that trailer was taken down by Columbia Pictures and the copy I uploaded was no exception. That experience is detailed here: How to Create a YouTube Channel that Drives Traffic to Your Website: Introduction.

I get it now though.

Movie studios want people to watch the trailer on their YouTube Channel, a channel they have branded and monetized, not yours. They want the cheddar and the perks all to themselves.

I doubt this was the reason why The Frozen Ground trailer was deleted though. Is the film tracking so well that Voltage Pictures wants only one source available on YouTube to see the trailer, their own?

Blood and Skin

Can the skin content of The Frozen Ground trailer be the reason it was pulled?

Many think so because YouTube doesn’t erase movie trailers over blood or gore content, an absolutely mind-boggling practice e.g the Saddam Hussein Hanged / Executed video.

You would think clips like that (actual death) and red band horror movie trailers and so forth would get instantly banned but that is not the case. The people that monitor YouTube, view YouTube, upload to YouTube are all desensitived to violence, gore, people being shot, stabbed, crushed, dropped, sliced, or bludgeoned to death.

When YouTube trailers and uploads pop up containing that material, its nothing. A non-event. Status quo.

That is not the case with skin.

With skin, especially what is deemed excessive skin (Vanessa Hudgens spreading her legs as she stripped while wearing a thong), YouTube may come down like a ton of bricks. The content may get an age restriction on it or get reported and deleted as inappropriate. That is what happend when I uploaded: Dancing with the Stars (Showmatch) Strip Dance: Silvina Escudero onto YouTube.

All those people that do not see anything wrong with blood and gore uploads will go through the process of reporting skin or sexually related content when it bears its teeth on YouTube, especially (it seems) if it pertains to someone once considered family-friendly and wholesome (Hudgens).

Conclusion

The winner between blood vs skin on YouTube is blood, just like with the movie and TV industry. In the case of The Frozen Ground trailer, it may be an anomaly or a double-standard is in play. Once again, I vote for the latter since this, this, and this are online on YouTube as well and have been for years.