Acting Against Pre-Movie Ads

impr0v

Last night I went to see a film in Cineworld, Parnell St. Dublin. I paid €9.20 for the ticket and, prior to trailers starting, a reel of at least 10 (possibly 15) advertisements were force-fed to me on the large screen in the darkened room.

This may not annoy you, and if that is the case this suggestion isn't for you, but it annoys me incredibly. I'm not very knowledgeable on the economics of multiplex management, but I sincerely doubt that the revenue from the screening of ads is necessary to render the sector profitable. If it is then, given the ticket pricing and the cost of discretionary purchases under the same roof, allied to record cinema attendance figures, serious doubts must be raised about financial control in the industry.

Essentially my problem is with the fact that I pay handsomely to go to the cinema, and despite this I am then, when essentially part of a captive audience, shown a lengthy stream of stupid and annoying commercials for anything from dogfood to spaghetti sauce.

To those that say it's possible to avoid the ads by entering the screen later than the advertised start time, yes it probably is, but there are number of factors which make this an undesirable strategy to me: the semi or complete darkness once they start showing ads/trailers; having to squeeze past those that entered at the right time if it's assigned seating, or having to search for seats if it's unassigned; the fact that I might miss trailers which I personally enjoy watching; etc.

I have now decided to pick a product that is advertised before the next movie I see and boycott it, purely due to the fact that it is shown in that environment.

I might be misdirecting my ire as essentially it's not the fault of the brands, or even the advertising agency, though neither are entirely blameless, but of the cinema chain, or individual establishment. However it's easier for me than boycotting cinemas in general, involves little effort and in some small way will be effective, though obviously not on a scale noticeable to the brand in question, given the relative insignificance of my purchase power.

Obviously if others adopted a similar strategy, it might over time become noticeable on a dogfood sales graph in the office of the dogfood company's marketing executive and, if he could somehow know where it stemmed from he might decide to instruct his retained advertising agency to limit the next campaign to non-cinema media. Then, to continue theoretical chain of events to its far-fetched conclusion, soon there'll be no advertisers left to inhabit that screen space after the lights out and before the trailers.

Accordingly, I'm inviting those that the practice annoys as much as me to do the same; pick one product, even the easiest product that you don't even buy now, and when the opportunity for you to do so arises some time in the future remember the inane advertising that tried to convince you to buy it, and neglect to do so.

If you barely notice the ads, or think it's fair enough that their shown, then cool, ignore the above. Likewise if you think it's about as effective a strategy as trying to soak up the sea with some Bounty Kitchen Roll, despite all the little elephants one sheet.

GLaDOS

Yea, i find Cineworld is quite bad for trailers/ads your left watching them for 15/20 minutes

Alter-Ego

You forgot [/rant]

I personally don't mind the ads, probably because i ignore them, which could be the reason i usually devour an large thing of popcorn before the movie starts.

Part of me does believe that its unfair to charge them prices along with advertising.

Crucifix

Are you going to add a product to your boycott everytime you see a movie?

Rhyme

I don't mind them... i usually go to the cinema with friends and i like taking the piss out of the ads with them. Builds the anticipation of the film for me.

JC 2K3

Downloading movies ftw.

impr0v

Crucifix wrote:

Are you going to add a product to your boycott everytime you see a movie?

No I don't think so. It would obviously be more effective that way, but it's unrealistic to expect myself to have a growing mental list to recite every time I enter a supermarket. Also, I'd inevitably eventually relegate myself to eating chickpeas and mown grass and dressing in fair trade bin liners.

I'll probably pick a few over a long period of time and try to ensure that they're items/products that I might previously have considered buying.

Crucifix

impr0v wrote:

No I don't think so. It would obviously be more effective that way, but it's unrealistic to expect myself to have a growing mental list to recite every time I enter a supermarket. Also, I'd inevitably eventually relegate myself to eating chickpeas and mown grass and dressing in fair trade bin liners.

I was just thinking if it's only one product you'll just have any guys taking part praying for a tampax ad.

Black Swan

In the States they typically have several trailers and concession ads before films. Normally about 15 minutes before the main feature. For this reason, I go to most films 10 minutes after the posted time, allowing about 5 minutes to get seated. Rarely have I missed the opening credits of the main feature.

The USA metroplex film corporations have been in the news. They are apparently losing money and doing things like advertising before the main feature to compensate for the loss in revenue. Ticket prices and concessions have gone through the roof!

The Bollox

Rhyme wrote:

I don't mind them... i usually go to the cinema with friends and i like taking the piss out of the ads with them. Builds the anticipation of the film for me.

I do the same, or just have a highly animated conversation with someone beside/behind me. but once the film starts all tom foolery is put aside

Laslo

Don't go to the cinema if it bothers you that much.

Dave!

Cinemas are a business, they're out to make money, like every business, and that's just another source of money for them. They're not running a community service! They could be doing alot more reprehensible things to make money, than showing ads for 15 minutes.

Should TV's and radio stations take ads off as well?

Anyways, it doesn't bother me, I just talk to whoever I'm with, etc etc

L31mr0d

JC 2K3 wrote:

Downloading movies ftw.

lol, seconded

I personally don't mind the ads, they are usually the best ones out at the moment and are usually the unabridged versions of them so its not solely just showing the product for 30 seconds. The long versions of all the guinness ads are excellent, and I love the M&M ads recently. Most of the ones they show in the cinema are like short movies with an advert at the end. Anyway, the way movies are going these days, there is more product placement in the actual movie itself then the ads before.

Plus, like you said, you didn't pay to see ads. So show up 10 minutes late and miss them. Solved. Now "lets all go to the lobby, and get ourselves a snack"

Day-wanna-wonga

DaveMcG wrote:

Should TV's and radio stations take ads off as well?

No, and that's a stupid notion. TV and Radio's sole revenue is from Spot Adverts, sponsorship, and teleshopping (TV only). You pay a cinema a cash fee to see a specific movie.

DonkeyStyle \o/

DaveMcG wrote:

They're not running a community service!

Heh, if they were I wouldn't mind the ads as much.
I think most people feel they've already paid enough.
If you bought a DVD for 20euro and it had 15 minutes of forced advertising at the start... would you be upset about it?

DaveMcG wrote:

They could be doing alot more reprehensible things to make money, than showing ads for 15 minutes.

Like what? (Just out of curiosity)
Charging admission to the toilets? Making you fill out marketing surveys while you wait, and the film doesn't get shown until everyone has submitted their forms? Chuggers in every row? Littering fines? Fines for rattling sweet wrappers?
I think this is deserving of it's own thread tbh... what'll they do next?!
Give them an inch, etc...

whiskeyman

More money is spent (per second) on some ads than the movie following it.
Some ads are better than the main feature tbh...

IceHawk

I'm completely against ads in the cinema, for reasons already given (ads provide revenue, which is fine. But if you've already paid €10 for 2-3 hours entertainment, you don't expect the first 15 minutes to be ads you see on TV anyway)
What really annoys me is that my local cinema in Limerick shows ads instead of movie trailers. Now, I really love watching movie trailers in a cinema, and I can't stand this sort of thing. However, I get around it by arriving 10 minutes late for the film beginning. Only works mid-week, when the cinema is relatively empty, though.

Crucifix

DonkeyStyle \o/ wrote:

I think most people feel they've already paid enough.
If you bought a DVD for 20euro and it had 15 minutes of forced advertising at the start... would you be upset about it?

God, I hate when there's an unskippable anti-piracy ad at the start of a purchased DVD. I feel like I'm being penalized for not just downloading the movie.

aphex™

They have long ads because people arrive so late. Especially in Cineworld.

So by arriving later, you're just encouraging them :P

So Glad

Yeah, I hate being subjected to ads. Hate them as they are but the fact that 100 or so people are sitting in a room being fed this **** pisses me off. Especially if I payed for it.

DonkeyStyle \o/

Crucifix wrote:

God, I hate when there's an unskippable anti-piracy ad at the start of a purchased DVD. I feel like I'm being penalized for not just downloading the movie.

Mmm, I also hate the kind of crap they're putting on rental DVDs these days... so much rubbish they won't let you skip... trailers, warnings, etc.
VHS is looking better and better IMO... at least you could fast forward all the shíte.

TerrorFirmer

I love trailers in the cinema! And rental DVDs are getting just as bad..

But the real slap in the face is retail DVDs, they've actually added trailers to alot of retail DVDs now, that in my opinion is completely unacceptable.

Dudess

I'm just surprised it hasn't been lobbed over to Film yet.

DonkeyStyle \o/

HavoK wrote:

But the real slap in the face is retail DVDs, they've actually added trailers to alot of retail DVDs now, that in my opinion is completely unacceptable.

The old defence used to be that pirated copies were of inferior quality... where do they stand now that they've packed authentic dvds full of unwanted crap?
Whether or not you like viewing trailers, it's still advertising for the studios/publishers... it pisses me off that I can't just chapter-skip them... it's like the pushy salesman who won't take "sorry, I'm not interested" for an answer.
Then you finally get to the film and it's full of product placement anyway. :rolleyes:
Actually I saw one of the old SuperMan films on tv there a few weeks ago... the product placement was insanely blatant in some scenes.

Peteee

IceHawk wrote:

What really annoys me is that my local cinema in Limerick shows ads instead of movie trailers.

Go to Storm Cinema instead of the omniplex. I find they show maybe 3 or 4 ads, then 5 or so trailers.

Since I like trailers, It gets my thumbs up

Lump

I hate going to the cinema now, the last time I went the projection was poxy and there were loads of idiots in the cinema on their phones talking ****e etc. I'd much prefere to watch the film in the comfort of my own home.

John

abetarrush

Trailers gooood

Ads baaaaad


TIP: If you use DVD Region Free CS on ur PC, u can unlock the DVD, and skip the damn piracy crap

So Glad

Film companies spend so much money telling us the crime of piracy but if they keep on flooding DVDs with ads to make us consume then I would opt for pirated DVDs to avoid such disgusting crap. But what difference does it make? Every square inch of Dublin has an ad on it. Sickens me.

jimmycrackcorm

Nothing Worse than arriving late at the cinema after paying €9 only to find that the film has already started as opposed toarriving late getting popcorn and it hasn't started because of the ads and then getting through the noisy popcorn eating, ads and people arriving late before getting settled into thefilm.

Our man in Havana

What's worse is when a cinema buys a worn out print of a film from the UK full of scratches and marks. :mad:

Kingp35

Its pretty obvious that the majority of you guys dont know how cinema pricing works. Ever wonder why food is so damn expensive in a cinema? Its because the cinema that is showing the movie only gets approx 15% of the price of the cinema ticket. The €9.20 you pay does not all go to the cinema, feck all of it does. A cinema needs to show adds before movies and sell food at crazy prices in order for the cinema to run at a profit.

No adds and cheap food = No Cinema.

If adds annoy you so much then just go late.

So Glad

Yes but then going in late means wading through a load of people and probably missing the good ads for films an the film itself, 'tis and age old problem.

Beastieboy

I came back from holidays recently to find that the local cinema in Blanchardstown, UCI, are now charging €1.50 extra for what they call premier seats which are basically the best positioned seats in the cinema. But fcuk it it's just a way of getting more money out of the public.... Do they do this in any other cinemas?