The fact that EVERYONE except her and her team (that's supposed to be composed of music industry experts) know that it's never a good idea to serve The Exorcist realness in a lead video.
The era wouldn't have been on life support had she given the song a GUY type of video and enough promo.
I didn't say that the Applause video is bad (even tho I do think it is), but that coming back with something that dark, after having had 3 WW flops in a row the era before, was a bad idea.
Applause video should've been her getting out of her apartment in NY, rushing to a concert, preparing, and than at the last chorus exiting on stage with lights, fireworks, people clapping, screaming, etc.