going off my vague and admittedly rusty memory, there were at least three major examples of this that I personally encountered:

• 1. The Marvel Civil War story arc in the comics
• 2. 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)
• 3. The MCU retread of Civil War from the comics, adapted to the silver screen

• *** 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.