Out of the Dark: And now, our feature commercials
I recently decided to splurge to see a matinee with a friend. After getting some Sour Patch Kids and finding a prime seat in the theater, we sat down to enjoy a healthy dose of involuntary advertisement bombardment. For 15 minutes, not only did we witness movie trailers and the corny rollercoaster ride that recites the theater rules, but we also had to watch a handful of commercials from major companies like Sprint, Ford, Coca-Cola and the army.
We already have to pay more than $9 to see a movie at the Harrisonburg Regal Cinemas but we are also forced to become a captive audience for advertisements that have no place in the theater. Since I was a kid, I’ve personally seen an immense increase in movie ticket prices. But where’s my heated massage movie seat or complimentary box of Nestle Buncha Crunch?
If we’re paying more for movie tickets, we should receive more out of the experience. It’s the same big screen, but now it has corporate commercials plastered all over it. If movie theaters are earning income from these advertisements, shouldn’t we see an increase in the quality of our cinema experience, or a decrease in ticket prices?
Usually, viewers and consumers have the power of ad avoidance, being able to choose when to change the channel, or turn our heads at billboards and bus ads. But when we’re sitting in a movie theater expecting to see the newest flick and instead five commercials come on before we see a frame of film, the problem is that we have become a captive audience of this advertising. During the full-length feature, we usually come face-to-screen with incognito endorsements like cross promotions, tie-ins and product placements anyway, so why must we endure more commercialization even before the movie starts?
Marketers are thinking outside the TV and devising new ways to bring their products into the up close and personal lives of consumers, since ad overload has made many Americans numb to the effects of ad strategies.
America has seen a great increase of ads cleverly infused into our everyday pastimes and activities. Marketers have practiced invading space that is public, but previously considered safe from advertisements in recent years, and movie theaters are the newest cavity of this inescapable advertising.
There is nothing wrong with businesses advertising their products or services, and there’s nothing wrong with movie theaters trying to get some extra revenue—it’s in the name of the well-oiled machine we so lovingly call capitalism. The problem lies with advertisers who prey on consumers in unconventional avenues that were previously immune, and rightfully so, from promotions.
We are exposed to more than 3,000 ads a day, according to Jean Kilbourne, a social theorist who has spent the majority of her career studying and critiquing advertising. If we come in contact with so many ads as it is, can’t we find some sanctuary in a dark theater that’s supposed to solely showcase silver screen creations?
Moviegoers shouldn’t be considered yet another segment of society marketers can sweep up in their ad campaigns. In 2006, the Cinema Advertising Council reported ad revenues of $417.4 million. Also in 2006, the Motion Picture Association of America reported that movie attendance had increased from previous years.
So if movie theaters are making more money off ticket sales, why are they so stressed to sell screen time to corporations? It’s really all about the money, and not what moviegoers want—but it should be the exact opposite.
Movie theaters should provide us what they promise: a movie that promptly plays at the time our ticket stubs say. Pre-feature commercials might encourage more people to pirate more movies for the sake of saving money and time that movie theaters have sucked from viewers to become captive audiences of advertising.
We don’t have to just sit back and mindlessly succumb to watching these ads. We can talk to the manager at the local Regal Cinemas and tell him we have a problem with pre-movie commercials. We could even contact theater chains and tell them to stop. We can sign the online petition to stop pre-movie commercials at petitiononline.com/cmpaa. We can demand the Cinema Advertising Council to stop its pervasive business practices. We can lobby with the Captive Motion Picture Audience of America. We could even stop going to the movies and wait for them to come out on DVD, rent them or subscribe to an online DVD rental service. Regardless of our strategy, movie theaters need to know that commercials have no place on the big screen.
Anna Young is a sophomore SMAD and sociology major.
