Saturday 7 February 2009

#15 Commercials At The Cinema

This is a blog I have been meaning to do for a while now ever since I have started to take notice of the commercials before the feature film. When I was young I never even noticed the long parts before the screen opening and the film actually beginning. Because of this I don’t know if it’s a recent thing or has been going of for years but I think that it is terrible to have to make your paying costumers to wait half an hour for the film to start. I also noticed that the multiplex's such as ODEON were much worse then my local art house cinema Picturehouse Duke Of Yorks, which it's very surprising when you think about it.

I understand when they show film trailers because its advertising more films to go see but when there is numerous car adverts it is just a waste of time. Ok so maybe the odd one or two should be shown but when it just doesn’t stop it ends up being frustrating. We watch thousands of adverts a day from billboards, magazines and of course television. Is it just another way to cram advertisements down our throats?

After seeing the same car insurance advert on TV then again on the side of a bus I don’t need to see it where I escape life, the cinema. One of the points of the cinema is to forget what’s going on in your life, but when they parade around obnoxious adverts in a dark room, I just annoys me. If I want a TV I will know to look on a websites or go in store I wont forget the stores or brands so why be so persistent with what you are selling? Whether over time it will faze out or get more intense something should stop it. I don’t pay £5-£7 on advertisements or trailers for that matter I can watch them in the comfit of my home. With advertisement getting more extreme I doubt that it going to stop.

Oliver Hunt

2 comments:

  1. I understand the frustration of sitting through adverts at the cinema - you're there to see a film and hopefully, for a little escapism. It is, however, important to recognize the value the revenue generated by the pre-film ad reel can bring to a cinema. Cinema advertisers DCM (formerly Carlton Screen Advertising) and Pearl and Dean have contracts with the cinema chains to play adverts that help bring a vital source of income to the cinemas. Remember, only a very small proportion of ticket sales goes to the cinema so other revenue streams are crucial.

    You can always avoid the adverts by spending an extra 15 minutes in the bar - the Duke of York's has a particularly friendly one. One consolation about cinema adverts: generally, the production values for adverts made for cinema are higher than those made just for television. This can result in some pretty impressive adverts - remember those Guiness ads? And just last week Kylie's ad for Agent Provocateur back in 2001 was voted best ever cinema ad in a poll by DCM - remember that one? I've seen worse movies on the big screen (http://tinyurl.com/cb7m3t).

    Great blog by the way.

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  2. That’s a very good point about ticket sales which I understand completely. But it can be annoying and tedious seeing a lot adverts every where in all medias, but that is life.

    I check out that Kylie advert and wow. I hadn’t seen that one before. I did right a blog on my favourite adverts and those ones are fantastic on a big screen and companies such as Fallon London need inspire more advertisements adverts.
    http://newfilmblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/10-top-5-adverts.html

    Lastly, thank you for reading and keep reading for my thoughts on modern cinema, reviews, awards news, ect….

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