going off my vague and admittedly rusty memory, there were at least three major examples of this that I personally encountered:
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- The Marvel Civil War story arc in the comics
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- The Twilight Saga Edward Vs Jacob marketing for the movies (which admittedly was handled somewhat tongue-in-cheek. I seem to recall a fast food commercial taking it to what I hope was an intentionally absurd degree)
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- The MCU retread of Civil War from the comics, adapted to the silver screen
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*** 4) Edit: Injustice: gods among us (thanks to u/Kinglion for pointing that one out)***
Whether this was intentional or not is beyond the scope of this screed, but it is interesting to note how many real-world examples of this phenomenon occurred during and after these campaigns, gamergate, the ghostbusters fiasco, the trump/anti trump movements, etc.
maybe it's nothing, or maybe it's something. I honestly have no idea, but the timing is certainly interesting at the very least.
I totally agree with you on that being the period where they're really pushing the which side are you on. There have been other periods where there were rivalries but they weren't politicized like they are now. Yes there was the Coke and Pepsi wars but nobody was going to burn your house down if you chose Coke or Pepsi. The Obama era really assured in one side is righteous and the other side is awful and you better pick the right side.
...that does seem to be the tipping point. I remember my mother calling him a Manchurian Candidate (learned a new word that day, lol), and I remember the campaigning for him being off-putting, though I always chalked it up to him being a Dem, and me coming from a pretty conservative family...
...and I remember the gaslighting at the time about him being elected having "nothing" to do with him being black, and thinking it was bullshit even then...
wow, thanks, you've given me a lot to think about... =)