What does "spoiler" actually mean?

The streaming giant Netflix has made it to our country's main tables and parlors with the voting campaign for May 15, 2022. But that's not all, because it is also reshaping the meaning of a somewhat retro-looking word in German-speaking countries: Spoiler. In the 1980s, when the casuals in white socks and wide-open shirts let their elbows hang out of the window and took a leisurely drag on their Muratti cigarettes as they drove through the city center, there was usually a spoiler on the back of the car. The bigger, the cooler. The successors of this type of man - today called car posers - focus more on horsepower and engine decibels than on aerodynamics. Yet in the German-speaking world, this was precisely the only interpretation of the word spoiler. Derived from the English to spoil For a long time it was simply called Reduce air resistancebut actually completely translated also spoil or ruin. But what used to be known to car enthusiasts as a sheet metal or plastic part on vehicles that favorably influenced aerodynamic conditions and was laughed at in car-critical cities is now the talk of the town.

The small subtle difference

In urban lifestyle talk, it's an art in itself to be one of the people who follow the right one in the universe of Netflix series. But to pass this on in a condensed form without giving away the essentials is already a high art of storytelling. Or just not a spoiler. The dictionary has recently started to affectionately call the new interpretation "jargon for the summary of a film, book or the like, which spoils the reader's or viewer's interest in the story by giving away information from the plot that provides suspense." The anger of those who are spoiled is then about the same as that toward autoposers. So this is how Netflix manages to not only change a word interpretation with us, but also to brand and win a vote (even if they are among the losers in the process). That should not only make the hearts of filmmakers beat faster with admiration, but also those of communication and brand experts.