So: Did a rabid Scott Stapp fan really just create a petition urging MGM to change the title of the upcoming Rocky spin-off Creed -- because the movie's name is "making it difficult, if not impossible, for the still-vital online Creed fanbase to exchange thoughts and discussion regarding band developments, song interpretation, rumors, non-erotic fanfiction, and deeper insights into the expanded Creed universe"?
[seealso URL="www.mashable.com/2015/06/30/creed-trailer-looks-awesome/"]
I mean... no, of course they didn't. That jokey opening line should be your first clue. Your second is this list of suggested alternate titles:
Rocky's Creed
Boxer Creed
Son of Creed (although, this was the title of a rare 2002 leak of studio demos, the title was never officially used by the band, and thus is not considered canon)
Apollo Creed's Son
Rocky: Son of Creed (while this makes it look like it's a reveal that Rocky was Creed's son, this is just an idea and MGM's marketing department can make it work somehow)
Rocky: The Next Generation
Creed (not the band)
Fake or not, though, the petition is wildly entertaining -- not least because it introduces the fabulous neologism "Creedmunity."
The tongue-in-cheek plea is the work of Los Angeles-based Nick Robinson, a filmmaker and content creator for Pluto TV. He also has at least two Twitter accounts -- featuring retweets of publications that took his petition at face value, and responses to the @-replies complimenting his A+ trolling. Only in America!
When asked for comment, Robinson wrote Mashable the following email:
This petition was started because a lot of the promise of the internet was to give a voice to those who had none - facebook and twitter, especially, have accomplished that. However, it's easy to forget how any sort of speech can be choked out by hijacking and taking over the use of words.
For instance -- if Rihanna were to release a song called "Mashable" and her interpretation made the word mean something horrible, before long social media searches and discussions of Mashable.com would be incredibly difficult to achieve. Teens would be calling each other "mashable" and using it in vines, and making fun of the website in such volume that the website wouldn't be able to serve it's [sic] function anymore. This is basically what MGM has done with the band Creed, they've mashabled it. Fans can no longer easily connect with one another and new discussions have ceased. I'm just trying to give them their voice back.
I have no qualms with the movie itself, it looks great! [sic]