Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
The US Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) has launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign, “Faces of Lawsuit Abuse.” The ads feature everyday Americans who have been victimized by abusive or frivolous lawsuits. The ads are running on TV, radio, the internet- and now at the movies.
The goal of the ads is to promote interest in restricting litigation hurting individuals and small businesses across the country. The series of two minute ads originally played in Colorado, Louisiana, and Washington, DC before making a national debut in theaters across the country in May.
Political advertising at the movies is a clever strategy. You can always change the channel with TV and radios ads; you can leave the website with internet ads; but you pay to be at the movies and are committed to staying for the feature presentation. The ad and its message can’t be missed. With the summer movie season’s blockbusters drawing large crowds, ILR’s ads will reach millions of people.
It comes down to finding new and unique ways to reach captive audiences. In today’s economy, businesses are much more open to political ad buys. Campaigns are always going on and candidates are willing to spend the money. Advertise at a local restaurant; Cheesecake factory sells ad space in their menus. Use the carousel monitors at the local airport’s baggage claim; people have to be there anyway, might as well grab their attention as they wait.
There are tons of other outlets for campaigning that have yet to be tapped. Movie theater ads are just tip of the iceberg in innovative tactics of political advertising.
June 8th, 2009 at 12:55 am
I have been wondering when policy spots would enter into movie theaters and how they would be constructed and this is an interesting example. The double edged sword of advertising at movie theaters, or in any venue in which the viewer can’t ‘change the channel’, is obviously that yes you have their attention but you also run the risk of annoying them precisely because they can’t change the channel. For example, recently I was in Portland, OR and I saw a packed house of moviegoers get visibly annoyed at a spot for the Marines (one man near by even complained out loud that he didn’t pay his 10 dollars to ’see a bunch of jingoistic propaganda’). Seeing this reaction I can only imagine what the response would be to something that was explicitly partisan or that touched on actual hot buttons issues. Clearly a very, very light touch is needed in an environment such as this; A more moderate tone that respects the fact that the viewer, in these situations, will be unable to turn the channel if they have an issue with what is being discussed.