While I don't normally pay much attention to commercials like some people I know, there is one ad campaign that really irks me. Unlike ads on television which I very rarely ever watch, I don't have much choice but to watch the many ads that are forced down my throat at movie theatres. The most odious ones are for moviefone.com.
Last summer, they included an elfin looking young woman in the front seat of her car. She was eating a candy bar and we, the audience, were lucky enough to be privy to her innermost thoughts. And what was that young lady pondering? She was thinking about how much better the candy bar would be if it had a little bit of moviefone.com in it. What? Yeah, because besides creamy nougat, her candy bar would also include showtimes, listings, and reviews. As she scrunches up her face in deep thought, we have to listen to her blather on about this nonsense. She concludes the ad by stating, "I bet the Japanese have a candy bar like that." I'm assuming she's referring to the fact that the Japanese are known for their technological gadgets but I still find the ending of the ad the perfect topper to a completely crappy ad.
This spring, the good folks at moviefone.com have an even stranger ad. This time, there is a middle-aged man standing in a kitchen. He is wearing sort of a blue leisure suit type get-up (if memory serves correctly, this one hasn't been seared into my brain yet) and he has a wispy moustache. The whole thing is very 1970's but really the 2000's! How very Napoleon Dynamite! This time, our hero is in deep thought about how his latte would be better if it had a little moviefone.com in it. I think he even laments that if it did, not only would it be creamier and have showtimes, etc. but it would help him get a date. But again, I'm not quite sure about all the little subtleties of this one yet. He ends the ad by putting down his latte in disgust and thinking that this is the worst latte ever -- simply because it didn't have moviefone.com in it.
Who is writing this stuff? Is there anyone out there who enjoys these ads? They are so incredibly and perplexingly inane. They are so bad that I would gladly watch those ads about how downloading movies is going to kill the careers of all the little guys making peanuts working on movie sets.
I know that some ad execs must think that any ad that gets people talking about their product is a good one. I guess I can't disagree. How many other times in Listmaker history have I taken the time to write about ads? Never, I tell you. I've been had. Here I am promoting the very thing that I disdain. Those ad execs sure are sneaky.
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9 comments:
Count me in among the haters.
They got you, and that's sad- even though you hate the bloody things you remember every frame. You should be allowed to stand outside the ad execs' house and repeat horrible things loudly through his/her windows until he/she has a banal image indelibly branded on his/her brain.
Mrs. Weasel refuses to run ads at her theater and what does she get for it? Guff. As in "Why did you start the movie on time? back home in Boston/New York/Cleveland/Intercourse PA we always arrive 10 minutes late to miss the ads and previews. Your theater sucks."
alright, weasel this is enough. you think you are so high and mighty up there in maine but if i hear one more crack about intercourse, pa, i'm going to really inflict some damage on your maine ass.
is it so wrong to want the late edition of the ny times in maine? it is the only way to keep connected with the world while vactioning in your rinky dink state.
get out of my suv's way, buddy!
City livin' has made your arms a-weak and a-spindly, while your legs would make good pipe cleaners. Whereas we are all pumped up from rasslin' bears and having thumb wars with lobsters. What need do we have of the NYT, with its reviews of restaurants in Tribeca and whatnot? Tis odd that our trees are pulped to make your recycling though.
You shall have your NYT in Maine when I can get the Bangor Daily News in Hells Kitchen!
All our problems will be solved up here when we go on Atlantic Time. Argggh! Ayuh! Arrgh! (and other suitably nautical Maine noises).
Perhaps Movifone and Pringles should get together. Pringles recently joined with Survivor (of Outwit, Outlast, Outplay fame) and added printed Survivor trivia to their pre-shaped potato-like forms. The same could be done with movie showtimes.
People really disparage your movie theater because it doesn't show pre-movie ads? This is why other countries hate America. Kudos to Mrs. Weasel for her refusal.
marc, that is truly scary.
jake and weasel - regarding movie times.
i would never complain about no ads but i think people are conditioned to movies starting a little after the start time. i like a few previews myself.
there is a theater here- bam- that consistently starts the previews 10 minutes before the start time and then starts the feature 2 minutes or so early. i have seen too many senior citizens stumble in the dark searching for a seat than i care to.
another theater in the city - film forum usually only shows one or two short previews before a film but they usually wait a minute or two after the "official" start time to start the previews thus making the film start about 3 or 4 minutes late. i think that is the way to go.
The nice thing about it is that she'll run one or two previews but not on every film. She won't run ads as she knows it will alienate the audience. And when you live in a Maine small town, alienating the audience means getting harangued at the grocery store or when getting coffee (and potentially in the local paper, by name). Her theater, for movie geeks, can be found here. Mrs. Weasel doesn't write the lame synopses.
I actually like the Fandango ads
Does that make me an idiot? Yeah it does.
But I hate tv ads. I mute them or channel surf for 2-3 minutes.
There is a TV ad out now where 2 guys are stuck in a freezer and one guy has a cell phone but he doesn't wan tous eit for some stupid reason. Both guys argue back and forth until the guy without hte phone takes a frozen piece of meat and clobbers the other one on the head with it. I tihnk it's a cingular commercial. Anyway pretty violent only softened by the appearance of the welsh lass Catherine Zeta Jones
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