…the Broadway League proves it's not just nonprofits that make theater look uncool.
(H/T Playgoer, who has more.)
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Definitely a classic example of a commercial that isn't sufficiently driving home the nature and benefits of the specific product it's selling. Could almost be an ad for JC Penney or an antidepressant. Which is bad news for people like me- I'm a classic example of someone who will remember an interesting commercial premise but utterly forget what product it was for. I remember that I used to talk about those "Sprint Commercials where the guy with the glasses says 'Can You Hear Me Now'..." And I actually had to Google it just now to be positive what the correct company is. If the commercial itself is boring as well, you have NO chance whatsoever of making any impression on me. Somehow this ad manages to be simultaneously too self aggrandizing *and* too coy.
Posted by: Ed | February 24, 2009 at 09:09 PM
Oh no! It kind of looks like a pharmaceutical brochure!
Posted by: Katherine | February 25, 2009 at 09:49 AM
Wow, I-Stock photo just threw up all over this ad.
Posted by: Jackie | February 25, 2009 at 10:33 AM
Ouch, the irony is painful: how an artform based on a live interpretation of a script can have neither in its advert.
Posted by: Paul | February 26, 2009 at 06:57 AM
It doesn't really give you a reason to go to the theatre. There's nothing "from" a show to give you a sense of what it's like, what you're missing. No "wow" factor. It's just a lot of generic people who could be selling anything.
Posted by: Esther | February 27, 2009 at 10:53 PM
At the same time, how would you market the message "You should go to the movies" without any specific movie footage in the ad? Presumably they didn't have rights to use B-roll from current Broadway productions (or were worried about their longevity). You have to figure a "Movies are fun" campaign would suck just as hard.
Too tough to accurately represent the diversity within the genre, as far as I'm concerned.
Plus, they're not going after the theatre-savvy, they're shooting for the "I went to see a play once--it was kinda fun" crowd.
If you take all that into account...yeah, it's still kind of lame. But it might resonate with the Red Lobster crowd.
Some assembly required...
Chaz
Posted by: Chaz | February 27, 2009 at 11:41 PM