Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Nissan screen ad with "audience" participation

This is topic Nissan screen ad with "audience" participation in forum Ground Level at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 03-09-2004, 02:17 PM:

In the newest Consumer Reports, there is the following:

"Last November, an ad for the Nissan Altima appeared on a limited number of movie screens before showings of 'The Matrix Revolutions.' As the ad rolled, people hired by Nissan jumped up from their seats in the audience and shouted lines of poetry. Only time will tell if such guerilla tactics sell cars....."

Did this happen in any of your theatres? And, were the poetry-shouters quickly escorted out? And, was the local Nissan dealership subsequently boycotted?

[bs]

screen ads in general, never mind those with help from the crowd.

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-10-2004, 11:51 AM:

A new low.

I can't stand commercials at all, whether onscreen or on TV or radio. How much is enough already? Spouting poetry?

Ads are lost on me. I never had an uncontrollable urge to jump up out of my seat and run down to buy a new car. Wasted production costs as far as I'm concerned.

Posted by Jesse Skeen (Member # 586) on 03-10-2004, 04:19 PM:

Next time I see a screen ad I'm going to shout loudly "What the fuck is THIS crap?? I paid to see this???"
So they can pay people to sit in the theater and make noise, but not to pay attention in the booth?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-10-2004, 04:20 PM:

...while everyone else in the auditorium goes "what a vulgar idiot".

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 03-10-2004, 09:49 PM:

quote:
Ads are lost on me. I never had an uncontrollable urge to jump up out of my seat and run down to buy a new car. Wasted production costs as far as I'm concerned.

That's not how ads work. Ads work on the subconscious, frequently impacted by the number of impressions. No one ever thinks they bought anything based upon an ad, but the products that sell the most are usually the ones that are advertised the most.

I'd bet your home/office is filled with products for which you've seen ads.

While shouting out poetry from a movie theater audience sounds ludicrous, I bet those in attendance remember the brand. And that's all they're trying to accomplish.

Posted by Eric Hooper (Member # 1730) on 03-10-2004, 11:40 PM:

quote:
Next time I see a screen ad I'm going to shout loudly "What the fuck is THIS crap?? I paid to see this???"

Here in SF, it is tradition to booo/hiss/scream at the commercials. The whole audience does it. Great fun!!

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-11-2004, 12:12 AM:

Pacific Theatres here in Hawaii run all of their commercials five minutes before the advertised show time under dimmed lights and I have no problem with that. After a few commercials, the show starts on time with the theatre chain's policy trailer followed by at least five trailers before the feature begins. Signature Theatre only plays one commercial and it is usually a Coke advertisement and it goes on at the scheduled show time.

-Claude

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 2038) on 03-11-2004, 12:56 PM:

Good point Martin, well taken.

However, the neverending commercials tend to make me AVOID buying that product. For instance, the way certain ads are fired at you over and over I guess it didn't work very well on me or I'd have a dozen Bowflexes and Dell computers by now!

As a policy, we don't show ads at all at Beach Cinema in Bradley Beach NJ. True, we are sub-run and our boxoffice take is better, but we don't show them because the patrons don't like them. The one-and-only "ad" we show is for our gift certificates we sell in December.

Posted by Steve Scott (Member # 630) on 03-16-2004, 08:22 AM:

So maybe the documentary they said they were filming at Rocky Horror in Minneapolis was just a recruiting scam... [Roll Eyes]

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-16-2004, 08:56 AM:

When commercials first appeared years ago here in NY, some of the newspaper editorials decried them and a bunch of people took to carrying in those little hand-held horns that work on compressed CO2 that you can buy for security (of sorts). When a commercial would go on the screen, two or three of these horns would go off. What was neat was that they were undetectable and you didn't even have to take it fully out of your pocket to use it....just enough so the mouth of the horn was out and there ya go -- instant disapproval statement. And the damn things were really loud!

But like all things, people got used to the ads and now the protest horns are gone and people pretty much sit there like sheep and take it. Every once in a while I will hear the occasional moan or even a boo, but you know screen commercials are hear to stay. Money ALWAYS trumps class every time. It's the nature of capitalism and a passive, spineless populous.

The scary thing is, exhibitors don't see the danger of running commercials in their cinemas. Yes, in the short term it puts a few extra dollar in their greasy, fat, grubby little fingers, but in the long run, it just speeds up the blurring of the movie-going experience and the tv viewing experience. The two will meld together to the point where people don't see any difference between the two and hence see no good reason not to watch movies on their tv sets in their spanking new high tech home theatres.

There was a reason why Hollywood once wouldn't allow any of its stars to appear on television. Exhibition should take a cue from that rule, or pretty soon the unspoken subtext of "I want my MTV" will really be "and, come to think of it, I don't want your Loews-Cineplex."

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 03-16-2004, 12:58 PM:

I don't think anybody wants Loews-Cineplex, even Onex. [Big Grin]

Posted by Gunnar Johansson (Member # 1661) on 03-16-2004, 04:18 PM:

I´ve seen people discussing screen ads in general here before, and how it seems to be in the States (I´ve not been for a while so I don´t know how it is) and I´m somewhat fascinated.

In Sweden almost all cinemas and chains have screen ads before the feature, including smaller theatres and singels. My student union run cinema is at the moment, for various reasons not just moneygrabbing, trying to get a deal to get screen ads. Until then we run old ones just for fun.

It used to be that at the posted time the commercial started, then the trailers and then the feature some 15 min later. Then they changed it so the commercials start 5 min before showtime, and that´s advertised in the papers. Usually it´s half lights, comercials and at showtime the trailers start and then the feature, maybe 5 min later. Most people show up on time, but for those idiots turning up a few minutes late it works out.

Swedish comercials are a little bit different, as I understand it, and seems to have a different tradition. It´s been a part of the moviegoing experience as far back as I can remember, and have heard of (being not very old), and swedish ads in general seem to have a bit more humor, tongue-in-cheek, irony to it (though I could be wrong).
Most/some companies actually make an effort to have different commercials on TV and in the theatre, and some just being different versions (usually oriented to a bit "older" crowd, i.e. a little more X-rated). Some can´t be seen on TV, just in the theatre, and as it is having an enormous inpact in the popular culture, most people want to see those as well as the feature. I can´t even begin to tell you how much of my everyday "joking" is based on commercials. Sort of recognizing the irony of being influenced by the commercials. I sometimes feel like the people in Demolition man where the popular songs are the old commercial jingles.

Maybe it´s a bit of a cultural thing. My latest observation of swedish mentality, where we stand in lines automatically and don´t get angry, we just clench our fists in our pockets, is at cultural events. I´ve heard that in most/some other countries when you pass people in an aisle to get to your seat you never turn your back at the "art" i.e. you show your behind to the people your squeezing past, but somewhere in swedish mentality the people are more important than the art, so you turn your back to the screen/stage etc. I wonder if it´s true. I know most swedes to the latter.

As far as audience participation in screen ads, I can´t remember any. The closest thing was at one of the first shows of ROTK where they had a marching band go up on stage, and to very lovely female assistants, on behalf of some cable company I think, draw a winning "seat" to get a bag of free candy or something.

Posted by Carl Martin (Member # 1146) on 03-17-2004, 02:00 AM:

for whatever reason, the swedish cinema commercials do seem a lot less crass than the ones here. but then, i haven't seen too many films in sweden, and i don't go to theaters here that show commercials, so maybe it's just my cultural bias speaking.

carl

Posted by Frank Angel (Member # 248) on 03-19-2004, 12:52 PM:

Crass is the least of it; when it comes to American advertising, the words infantile, male-bashing, sophomoric, dishonest and deceptive come immediately to mind without any forethought. Give me a minute and I be able to come up with ten more negatives. Maybe that's why we hate commercials.