Do you have Will Rogers Foundation ads before your movies?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve noticed an interesting phenomenon, and I’m curious about it. What better place to be curious than here? :slight_smile:

I live in the SF Bay Area (San Jose, specifically). In all the years I’ve lived here (since 1989) and all the different movie theaters I’ve attended, I have never seen an ad for the Will Rogers foundation, trying to solicit charity donations. However, I’ve also attended, while on vacation, movies in San Diego, Scottsdale AZ and Columbus OH. In all three cases I’ve seen Will Rogers ads.

Is there something about the Bay Area that doesn’t like Will? I’m just curious to find out: Do you have these ads, and if so, where do you live? It’s been going on for a while, too: the Scottsdale trip was in the mid 90s, while the San Diego trip was in July of this year. Will turned up in both places/times. I wonder if there are any other Will-less metropolitan areas.

2

The last time I saw those was probably the mid 80s. And they always seemed to be at the theatres inside or attached to malls.

3

ISRT that they only run that at certain times of the year (which may well be coinciding with those vacations of yours).

I’ve seen them on and off in various places in the Midwest (Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Illinois), though I don’t think I’ve seen them in the past couple of years. I also suspect that some theater chains run them, and others don’t.

4

I only ever saw them at General Cinema theaters, in the 80s and 90s, in the Indianapolis area. Part of the campaign was to also have theater employees pass a popcorn bucket like a church offering plate through the crowd. Always embarrassing when it was a poorly attended matinee showing.

Since GC (and competitor Loews) left the market, replaced by AMC, United Artists, and Regal, I haven’t seen them.

5

Not for 20 years or so. They would show the PSA, then the lights went up and the ushers would collect donations. The movie theaters around here are all freestanding; we have no malls to speak of for 50 miles.

Then one summer - they didn’t do it. And that was it.

6

I recall them in Philadelphia area theaters. The ushers would collect donations. I don’t remember how long okay it was or if it was only specific theaters. I also don’t know if it’s happened more recently, since I don’t go to the movies as often as I used to.

7

Found some info. It’s actually the Will Rogers Institute, and they’re doing something different now.

8

Obviously that should have been “ago” and not “okay”. :smack:

9

Interesting…because when I was down in San Diego for Comic Con, we went to see the Avengers at a local theater and they definitely had a Will Rogers thing at the beginning (no passing of popcorn boxes, though–it was on screen).

10

I’ve been seeing them at my local Regal for the past few months. They’re not separate ads in my case; they’re part of the pre-show reel that runs for fifteen minutes or so before the lights go down. The reel also includes little behind-the-scenes previews for upcoming TV shows and movies, plus the occasional car or cell phone ad