Well, we new it had to come to this at some point. Sure, it's a captive audience but with the length of time prior to the actual start of the film creeping towards 25 minutes, theater goers are getting mad. And some are suing.
"It is completely ludicrous to have moviegoers pay good money to watch commercials -- they can do that at home for free," said attorney Douglas Litowitz, a professor at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Ore.
"Moviegoers are busy people who want to see feature films at the times set forth on their tickets and in newspaper listings. To keep them in a low-level state of confusion so that they can be force-fed advertisements is a breach of contract and a deceptive consumer practice," Litowitz said.
The suit targets New York based Loews Theaters.
It will be a tough fight as the segment is now a $300 million business according to the Cinema Advertising Council.
But those suing are not letting up. "The newspaper listing and the tickets should state the actual times of the commercials, the coming attractions and the feature film," Litowitz said.
While I admit pre-movie ads are annoying, the theaters are not going to cave into this one anytime soon. Maybe a handful of people will just come after the start time and try to avoid the ads but the draw of feature films is too powerful to amount to any large scale boycott. I could be wrong but I don't think so.
Of course, none of this would be a problem if the ads themselves were actually entertaining.
More...
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The layout of Adrants is so much cleaner don't you think? Now, there is just one center section with the main postings and all the rest of the stuff is over there on the right. It works for me. Hope it works for you. Feel free to comment.
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As mentioned before, the right column of this site contains hand picked advertising related headlines. If you click on "Advertising Headlines" you will be taken to a page that has only those headlines on it...not the entire site you are looking at right now. It's just a basic page you can bookmark separately if you wish. At the bottom of the column, you will see two more links: archives and rss feed. The archives link is just a page containing the column's info categoried by week. The rss feed link allows you to receive each headline as it is added using your rss reader. If you don't know what that is, then that link is not for you. Have fun!
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An advertising team is working very late at night on a project due the next morning. Suddenly, a Genie appears before them and offers to each of them one wish.
The copywriter says: "I've always dreamed of writing the great American novel and having my work studied in schools across the land. I'd like to go to a tropical island where I can concentrate and write my masterpiece." The Genie says, "No problem!" and poof! The copywriter is gone.
The art director says: "I want to create a painting so beautiful that it would hang in the Louvre Museum in Paris for all the world to admire. I want to go to the French countryside to work on my painting."
The Genie says, "Your wish is granted!" and poof! The art director is gone.
The Genie then turns to the account executive and says, "And what is your wish?"
The account executive says, "I want those two assholes back here right now."
[via The Cartoonist]
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The fascination with breasts and chocolate never ends. Click image for larger version.
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P and G will run a spanish language (mostly) spot during the Grammys. Not a dubbed version of the Grammys on a Hispanic channel, but right on the actual, English speaking Grammy Awards Show on CBS.
This is rare but not a first. Nike and Pepsi have run Spanish spots on English speaking shows before.
More...
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A story in The Star claims former Pepsi pitch woman Britney Spears was seen doing Coke (the powdered kind) in the bathroom of Miami's Crobar Lounge.
Of course, Britney and her force of publicists are vehemently denying the claim and are filing a defamation suit.
You'd think with her taking a year off, she'd a bit more under the radar. Not so. she seems to have been in the headlines more this year than when she was actively touring/recording/pitching.
Never a dull moment with Britney.
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This Sunday, February 23, The Home Depot will launch a new campaign with a :60 in the 45th Annual Grammy Awards on CBS.
The new campaign theme is "The Home Depot is more than a store -- You can do it. We can help."
"In these challenging times, homes are more of a sanctuary than ever before. Consumers are looking for solutions and resources they can trust," said John Costello, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of The Home Depot. "Our new marketing campaign highlights the unique benefits of our brand. Home Depot was built on a foundation of great merchandise assortment, tremendous value and the know-how to improve your home. The new advertising captures the many relationships we have with our customers that transcend the ordinary shopping experience. We improve skills and build confidence through clinics, bring families together in kids' workshops, and empower people to accomplish meaningful projects to make their homes better."
The Richards Group of Dalla developed the campaign.
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