Yeah, other than the part where you actually pay to see a concert. That trivial detail aside, it’s a perfect analogy.
I think it’s more like the holocaust. Or maybe it’s like when you buy a car that kills all the Jews. That’s a pretty good analogy. Actually, I think it’s like a My Little Pony that kills all the Jews while singing covers of Prince songs and reciting the Marseillaise backwards at a crossroads at midnight and running over black people.
Or, not.
I’ve been on the other side of this.
In college I ran a University film program. Once in a while we coordinated events like this one (this was 20 years ago - things were different before the whole internet/viral marketing thing - but we still did these mystery screenings). More than once a studio would get burned - completely unintentionally, by the EXPECTATIONS of the students about what they were getting. The studios really don’t want you to leave mad, they want you to leave and tell all your friends about this great thing you saw. But if the rumor got around campus that the free tickets were for this summer’s blockbuster - and we had a free screening of some B list romantic comedy - we had disappointed students.
You might want to add in the theater as well. I can’t believe that you’re the only person who was annoyed, and everyone involved needs to get a little feedback.
Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but now I’m all disappointed that your revolution fizzled so quickly.
Who do you think owns WB (NYSE: TWX)? It’s not some 19th Century Robber Baron twirling his mustache. Thousands and thousands of individual investors do; you know, hard-working people trying to save some money for retirement. The OP’s theft is not sticking it to THE MAN, or to evil corporations, or even to a Hollywood movie studio, but to ordinary people like me.
In addition, her “plan” is analogous to shoplifting. What happens when idiots steal from the grocery store? The store raises their prices, to cover their losses. I’m sure WB does the equivalent, i.e., if they are losing revenue from ticket sales, they’ll raise the rates they charge the theaters, who will then raise the ticket prices for everybody.
It was the “Screw everybody else, I WANT X” (for free!) attitude that made me “frothy”.
Was everyone else pissed about this? Did they seem to somehow know it was only the Batman preview before coming? I have no trouble imagining that some nerds may find a six minute preview a great way to spend several hours, but only if they knew what they were getting into beforehand.
Well, I’m not going to proclaim that I was in the right for what I had planned to do (and still plan, with The Dark Knight) in the heat of the moment. My revolution will have to be confined to pay-and-switch for TDK, and not paying full price for Warner Brothers movie (though the thought that I might be screwing Carol Stream specifically out of some investor revenue makes makes me wish I wasn’t backing down).
I still think the studio was in the wrong though. That was one of the most boneheaded marketing ploys I’ve ever seen, with no regard to fuel prices or people’s time. They had already announced that the 6-minute preview would be showing in front of the IMAX I Am Legend when it opens, and plenty of Batman fans would have gone (and still will), so this pre-preview was totally unnecessary to begin with. It cost a lot of people time, money, fuel, energy and goodwill. We had to take a train, then a bus to get to Navy Pier. Other people drove from long distances. A group of people in front of us came all the way from Wisconson. I didn’t see them afterwards to find out what they thought. It all wouldn’t have been so bad if we’d gotten something more than 6 lousy minutes for our troubles, or, if we’d been told when printing the passes what to expect so we could decide for ourselves whether to go or not.
I sure don’t want this to make me mistrust mystery passes in the future, but that’s what this has done.
Oh, and to the person who snickered at my excitement for Where The Wild Things Are, how could I not be excited? It’s a Spike Jonze movie. Enough said, unless that means nothing to you, but if that name means nothing, then you wouldn’t understand anyway.
Edit for wolf’s question. No one knew that it was only going to be a 6-minute preview. While some of the uber-Batman fans probably didn’t care, we talked to people as we were leaving who were upset too.
Whether they were exactly the same or not doesn’t actually change the point that i was making. Substitute “similar” for “exact same” in my earlier post, and my argument remains exactly the same.
Thanks for making my point for me. It was, in fact, a perfectly decent analogy, because the substance of the argument relied not on how much the person paid, but on questions of expectations based on promises on the ticket, and expectations based on commonly-accepted practice.
i never argued that someone has the right to expect the same amount of entertainment from a free ticket as from a paid-for ticket. I merely argued that basing one’s expectations upon what usually happens in similar circumstances is not unreasonable. I’m glad you agree.
I could totally see how it would be annoying to go to a theater and get only 6 minutes when you were expecting a whole movie. I just thought it was a bit of a overreaction to plan on checking what studio put out each movie, and specifically go out of your way to buy tickets for other movies. Just seemed silly to me. And, a bit of an overreaction.
And, I think a big part of the problem is the fact that you hadn’t heard about the viral marketing that has surrounded Dark Knight for a few months now. (Why? I am not sure, it’s sure to be a blockbuster. I guess it’s a handout to the hardcore fans to make them even more excited.) This is the third or fourth Dark Knight thing I have heard about that has been set up to show just a piece of the movie, and nothing else. All of them have been free. And, they have all lead frothing fans to run all over the place to get there. The first I heard about involved a series of puzzles you had to follow around until you finally got to the end at the San Diego ComicCon and got to see the first view of Heath Ledger as the Joker.
If you had heard about the nature of some of the Dark Knight marketing beforehand, you probably would have thought twice.
RE: Sweeny Todd and Where the Wild Things Are making heads explode… Who cares? It will be a little head explosion for those two, I am sure they will be fun.
Also, not only is Spike Jonze involved, but Dave Eggers. That’s a good sign, in my book.
I do know all about the viral marketing of The Dark Knight. I like the series, I’m a fan of Christian Bale, Christopher Nolan, and Heath Ledger, and I love that Chicago is a stand-in for Gotham City (we even saw some of the first one being filmed). I’ve been keeping up on, though not participating in, the marketing. Until now I thought it was pretty clever. As I said in the OP, I knew it was Dark Knight-related…
See, I knew that whateveritwas would involve the 6-minute preview, it just never crossed my mind that that’s ALL it would be, that they would get people out and all the way downtown to spend hours waiting in line for 6 minutes of footage. Silly me. That’s the last I’ll be paying attention to anything DK-related. They’ve soured me on their promotion.
Oh indeed, I know they’ll be fun and I can’t wait! I was reacting to a claim that I was encouraging everyone to go see WTWTA and that I was pushing Sweeney Todd. By heads exploding, I was thinking of a family, including grandma (a regular one, not a weirdo like me) happily going to see a Broadway musical, and them all sitting there in shock when the blood and gore starts spurting. And though I don’t know how Spike is approaching WTWTA, if it’s anywhere near as weird and wonderful as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, it’s not going to be “for the whole family.”
I’m not familiar with him, but if he’s ok with Maurice and Spike, that’s good enough for me!
Why would you want to screw anybody out of their retirement income?
BTW, your location tag contains an error.
Yeah, I got that you knew it was Dark Knight related. Just,I don’t think you knew about the nature of a lot of their marketing. Like I said, this is not the first time I have heard about a short sneak peek about this movie being given with nothing else attached., In fact, the other times I heard about it people were excited to see it! But, that’s because that is all they thought they were getting.
ps:
I think Where the Wild Things are won’t make anyone who read the book and liked it head’s explode! That’s one creepy book. In the very best way. And, I liked the one picture I saw from the film. Looks perfect!
You have every right to be pissed. You certainly should write a strong letter of complaint. Indeed it was “one of the most boneheaded marketing ploys” I have heard of.
I think it was the “not paying” stupid remark that caused the pile-on. This* is *the PIT. PITings have a tendency to turn on the PITer, especially when said Member posts in careless, hasty, anger. Sorry.
Oh man, you’re right. It really is too bad that there aren’t any good examples of free concert series for me to link to, huh asshole?
Just out of curiosity, are there free concert series promotions that invite people without saying anything about what to expect?
Are you joking? Were you really unaware that plain old ordinary people have 401K retirement plans, and that these invest in every kind of industry from entertainment to manufacturing? These are file clerks and receptionists and construction workers and theater ushers. And my daughter, who is a customer service rep. So a big hearty fuck you.
Yes, there are and I’ve been to a couple. Usually, it’s held in a relatively small venue and done by a company that is pushing a product. The last one I went to was done by Bacardi, who was marketing some malt beverage thing. The band was Survivor. This was just about a year ago, by the way. I had a blast, but how many times can you listen to “Eye of the Tiger”? ::chuckle::
The drinks were cheap, although only Bacardi products. I really wanted just a simple beer as the night progressed, but hey, no complaints.
I’d actually be surprised if there were that many people disappointed in the screening.
These things are for fanatics, guys who would willing wait in line overnight to see the teaser trailer, who will then go hoot and holler about how awesome it is on IMDB and AICN and other websites. Mostly to other fanatics, but enough normal people catch wind of the buzz to make the exercise worthwhile, or so the theory goes.
Anyway, I’d be willing to bet that most of the people there knew exactly what they were seeing and were glad to see it. That a few folks who were expecting more is unfortunate, but they’d probably be in the minority.
Yayyy! First, I like the use of the word transparentest. Will use today. Secondly, I wouldn’t call them assholes as much as just insufferable goody two shoes nerds. I thought this place was supposed to be all anti-establishment. You are really defending warner brothers here? You think its wrong to steal from them? Why does anyone give a flying fuck about stealing from warner brothers?
The last time I paid for a movie in the theater my boyfriend and I were going to have a low key date and save some money. Between two tickets and snacks the date cost over 30 clams. We would have spent less than that at our neighborhood bar. Needless to say, I don’t pay for movies anymore. I just walk in. The 17 year old ticket takers usually just think I’m coming out of the bathroom I imagine. Never did I really consider I was stealing from poor vulnerable little warner brothers. My thought process was “I wanna see that movie…yikes 10 dollars a ticket…I’m just gonna go in anyways”. I think what stops most people from not committing these kinds of petty crimes is the fear of getting caught, not morals.
there really IS a gray area in a lot of crime. I don’t steal from the mom and pop bodega. I don’t dine and dash. I don’t take the dollars out of the blind homeless man’s cup really quietly. I just really don’t think the OP is going to petty theft hell. especially since there is money being shelled out in the first place.
Don’t insult others by imputing to them your own situational morality. It may make you feel better to believe that your petty behavior is exactly how others really want to act, but that doesn’t make it true.
There is NO gray area in a straight-forward theft. If it doesn’t belong to you and you take it without permission, then you are a thief. It other situations we might be discussing whether the theft can be excused – like when a person who is hungry and penniless steals food – but that doesn’t change the fact that the person is a thief. And it’s light-years worse in your case, where you a stealing something you don’t need and are perfectly able to pay for, you’re just too cheap and dishonest to do so, and too undisciplined to do without something you’re not entitled to. Under THOSE circumstances, it does not make a rat’s ass worth of difference who you’re stealing from.
I’m not making any comment on the OP, but you: You’re a slimy little thief. Don’t try to rationalize it by commenting that those you are stealing from can afford it, or others probably want to do the same. Just own it.