This is no publicity stunt, someone is an idiot.
Um… again, why on Earth would this make anyone want to see the movie? Because a real phone number is IN the movie? Huh?
I get the feeling you yourself don’t know what’s going on here. This movie is done. The only way people will see this phone number is is they’re already watching the movie. There is no reason whatsoever for the studio to direct people to watch a movie they’re already watching.
Ho, ho, you say. But those people will tell their friends! That’s how movies get promoted nowadays - word of mouth.
Uh-oh. Nope. That’s definitely not how the majority of movies get promoted. Only the tiniest low-budget independent film would need to rely on word of mouth, not a huge Hollywood blockbuster starring Jim Carrey.
And of course, “publicity” for a movie placed INSIDE THE MOVIE is completely useless.
If the studio had been very clever and creative, it could have placed this so-called publicity in a commerical or - better yet - a different movie.
dantheman, again I (respectfully) disagree.
You say: People go see the movie anyway, hidden real phone-number or not. Even if the phonenumber could work as bait, it works too late.
I think (but I am a mere psychologist, no expert on moviepromotion,and I suspect no-one on this board is) that it doesn’t work that way.
Informing the public his big comedy starring JC plays in theatres right now is one thing, and paid publicity can buy a moviecompany that. People will go see it or not, based on their circumstances (time, money, company to go see it with). But, more importantly and more relevant to my reasoning here, they will choose which movie they will see based on the feeling (or lack thereof) they have about the movie and its actors.
It is my guess that most people will not think: “Oh, this is the movie from the doofusses that duped a poor woman. Boycot them!”
Most people will, I guess, think (almost subconsciously): “oh, this is the movie I have some inside information about (that I can pass on to my date as we watch it together)”.
Having inside information about something (be it a person, an event) interests you even more in it, makes it part of your thoughtworld, endears it, if you like. If you choose a movie to go to on a Saturday night, this one will pop to mind more easily than another you do know a story about.
If it doesn’t work that way, why are moviecompanies always so eager to spread stories in the promotionperiod of a movie? Stories about love-affairs between leading actors, cameo-appearances, bloopers, expensive special FX, actors that almost froze in the tropical swimmingscene?
I’ll bet you 10 dollars that we will never hear from that radiostation or from Dawn Jenkins again. They’ve served their purpose.
If I recall correctly, the phone number in the commercial made in character in the movie Ghostbusters… you know, “We’re ready to believe you!”… was attached to an answering machine that had them speaking a brief message.
Bruce screwed up.
Actually it seems as though in many cases that it was the press who called them to get their reactions to put in their story. I wonder how many newspapers, local TV news channels and morning radio programs have placed calls to talk to these folks about the experience.
They’re just lucky no ones posted the number in any of these news stories. Actually I’m rather surprised about that.
The phone number is IN the movie. Those people are already watching it. There’s no need to lure people to a place they’re already at. That’s the same as inviting people to my apartment and then spending time telling them how they need to visit my apartment.
Right. They’re not going to go because there’s a real phone number in the movie. They’re going to go because Jim Carrey’s on it. Therefore this is useless as a publicity stunt.
No one suggested people would boycott the movie. You, on the other hand, suggested people would go because the number was in there, which is ludicrous.
For most people, it won’t register that a real number is being used. For the thousands for whom it DOES register, they’ll go home and dial the number and then tell their friends to call it. At no time would they say, “You gotta see this movie, a real number is in it!” They’ll just tell their friends the number. For these people, the movie itself is secondary.
Because people will watch the movie because of the backstories on occasion, but they won’t watch a movie because of a dumb trick like this. For one thing, this incident hasn’t been mass promoted as a reason to see the movie, unlike leaks of love affairs and the like. For another thing, most people do not place “real phone number” anywhere on their List of Reasons To See A Movie.
To further demonstrate my belief that this is not a publicity stunt, I provide yet another news story (this one from Minneapolis, MN): Other people with “God’s phone number” think this is a pain, as well. Note that this story is independently written from the others that have appeared.
If Universal is using this as a publicity stunt, they’re even more brain-dead than I had originally thought. You don’t have people saying things like “I’m not going to comment until I talk with a lawyer” and “This situation is beginning to interfere with my business” (both paraphrased) as part of a publicity stunt. That’s some serious negative publicity, there.
And if you don’t think any publicity is bad publicity, let me introduce you to Richard Scrushy, CEO of locally headquartered HealthSouth. The stock price of his company (and a fair chunk of his personal fortune) has gone down the tubes ever since his company made headlines a couple of months ago.
I want to know how hard the movie people thought about this issue beforehand. They did think about it beforehand, because they say it’s not a working number where the movie is set. So they picked a number deliberately. Somewhere in that decision process, someone should have thought about the dozens of other area codes out there, and realized that the number would likely be a real number somewhere.
Not having seen the movie yet, I’m assuming they didn’t include the area code. They could have avoided this whole problem by doing so (if they did include it, and people are calling that number in other area codes, then those people are idiots). Many cities have multiple area codes now, so this wouldn’t have seemed odd. The character could even comment about it being a local number. At least this way, the phone company would only have to disable one phone number in one area code. Now they probably have to disable those seven digits for every area code, forever.
So how much of this was discussed? Did they evaluate the situation in detail, or were they blind to the ramifications? If they missed the potential problem altogether, then they are morons. If they knew exactly what they were doing, they were assholes. Either way, they don’t look good.
As far as the people who have that number, that’s tough. The damage is done, and you have to deal with the reality of the situation. Either get a new number, or incorporate the movie one into your life somehow. The genie isn’t going back into the bottle. It’ a one in 10 million chance (only an approximation, and you’re welcome to chime in with the correct figure) that something like this hits you – at least you didn’t get hit by lightning.
::deep breathing::
This is probably the stupidest conspiracy theory I have ever heard. The St Petersburg Times is a widely respected newspaper in the state of Florida. The reason that Yahoo! News picked the story up from the Times is that it is so well-respected. Had you even considered looking at the Times’ website and deciding for yourself whether the paper was trustworthy?
Moving on –
Ooner, you repeatedly asked why the woman from Florida quoted in the story wouldn’t just stop answering the phone. Did it occur to you to maybe read the story in question? If you had, you would have discovered that this woman uses this number for her business! She cannot choose not to answer her phone, which she requested as a custom number, if she would like to stay in business. When I saw the movie, I knew that the number was valid for cellphones here in Pinellas County (where this woman and I both live), and I immediately felt bad for whoever had the number. She got 15-20 calls an hour during the movie’s opening weekend.
What the hell is wrong with Universal? There is a reason that the 555 convention is in place.
Notice that this woman’s name is Jenny.
We were all wrong. If Jenny’s number is 776-2323, then God’s is 867-5309.