The Passion Ad Campaign

[Some Friggin Guy]

I have a question which is brought to mind by The Passion, but it really has to do with just about any "controversial" thing out there.

Has anyone seen a commercial for this movie? I haven't. Not one single piece of promotion. I've known about the movie for months, though. All because of the possibility of anti-semitism.

Befor eI go any further, let me say this: if the movie is anti-semetic, that is a bad thing. We don't need any more hatred in the world, we have enough..

Anyway, without a single ad, people are already talking about this movie being a huge box-office success. I know that the first 9 or 10 showings at the theater carying it here are already sold out.

It reminds me of Ellen DeGeneres. When she announced that she was going to be coming out on her show, it made headlines because so many people protested and made a big deal about it. It became the highest rated show in that series history out of the sheer curiosity factor.

I guess what I'm getting at is this: Why don't people realize that if they make a big deal about a movie or TV show or whatever they find controversial (assuming it is a commercial enterprise) all they are doing is providing huge amounts of free advertising?

 

[Samus]

I've seen quite a few advertisements for it, and I saw a preview when I went to see another movie. And I don't even have cable, so these are only ads I've seen while watching TV at my girlfriend's apartment.

It looks very graphic, but otherwise like a very well done movie. I'm sure it is; think Braveheart for Mel Gibson's other work as a director.

I won't see it though, it's not worth the ridiculous movie ticket prices.

 

[Graham]

I guess what I'm getting at is this: Why don't people realize that if they make a big deal about a movie or TV show or whatever they find controversial (assuming it is a commercial enterprise) all they are doing is providing huge amounts of free advertising?

It's the same reason people respond to threads that are obvious and blatent trolling efforts.

The best variation is when the complainers are complaining about people giving attention to the troll / controversial movie / TV show or whatever.

Basically, people are dumb.

Graham

 

[Some Friggin Guy]

Re: Re: The Passion Ad Campaign

It's the same reason people respond to threads that are obvious and blatent trolling efforts.

The best variation is when the complainers are complaining about people giving attention to the troll / controversial movie / TV show or whatever.

Basically, people are dumb.

Graham

Graham, I don't know whether you were talking about this thread there or not. I asked this question because I honestly can't figure out the reasoning behind it. It could be as simple as "people are dumb", sure, but might there be something else. Might it be an issue of trying to get your own publicity of the issue?

 

[Graham]

Re: Re: Re: The Passion Ad Campaign

Graham, I don't know whether you were talking about this thread there or not. I asked this question because I honestly can't figure out the reasoning behind it. It could be as simple as "people are dumb", sure, but might there be something else. Might it be an issue of trying to get your own publicity of the issue?

Sorry, I guess that was a bit of a rant.

Basically, what I mean is that people have a tendency to react to stuff that annoys them by telling everyone how much it annoys them.

Unfortunately, as you have pointed out in the OP, this is most often entirely counterproductive as it only draws attnetion to the thing being condemned and raises the price or ratings or whatever.

Even amongst the small proportion of the population that actually realises this, you will find that most people still react the same way.

We just don't seem to be able to help it.

I do think some filmakers and other "artists" recognise this tendency, however, and deliberately take advantage of it (Madonna, for instance).

Again though, I think even the people that realise this often can't stop themselves from contributing it.

Graham

 

[Brown]

I've seen quite a few advertisements for it, and I saw a preview when I went to see another movie. And I don't even have cable, so these are only ads I've seen while watching TV at my girlfriend's apartment.

Some web sites have ads for it. Yesterday, the imdb web site devoted about one-sixth of a page to ads for the movie. (I haven't checked to see if this is the case today.)