I’ve been pondering this question for three weeks.
I went to a showing of a local film at the cinema. Local films (Mark Jenkin notwithstanding) are a curious beast. They are usually short and poorly made, and, sure enough, so was this one, but they do have one thing going for them… they draw a crowd.
The showing I went to was pretty much sold out.
The audience was a very different one to the ones I’m used to when I go to see the more arty/foreign films. It is exactly the same audience that revels in feel good British films about saving a hospital, Army wives forming a singing group, a community buying a racehorse that wins a big race, Dad’s Army, an old man walking to hundreds of miles to see his sister etc. etc.
Here’s the thing… in an audience with an average age of about 75 (conservative estimate), there were three advertisements to join the armed forces! Marines, Army, R.A.F., presumably all produced by the government.
I’ve seen one before, but three? To an audience of people, most of whom are long into their retirement. They ain’t joining the army anytime soon.
Why?
You ask – I’ll guess the answers…
I would imagine advertising is bought in batches for either the chains or groups of independents. A one off local film is not going to get its own set of advertisers so it gets the standard pack.
Three adverts for the armed forces seems a bit high but, I suspect, this is peak recruitment time for those that would be swayed by an advert to join. Also, those adverts are also about creating a brand and a perception within the general public. Someone who sees the advert may well tell someone who would be interested in it and you may (or may not) have a better perception of what these organisations do and offer.
Is it still Pearl & Dean advertising a Curry House just 12 steps from this cinema
Ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba … ba
Ah the generic P&D curry advert and a different voice would announce the name of your local curry house.
(plummy voice) “You don’t have to fly to India to go to the” (pause) (local accent) “Maj Tahal” etc etc.
Love it!!!!
The local accent would also sound as if it was recorded in a makeshift studio possibly a wardrobe.
If you don’t like curry, get a hot dog. Just don’t make a mess on your clothes, err…
@Rigid-Digit
You ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-beat me to it, RD
My own favourite, can here it playing in my head still, I think at the Oxford Odeon in the eighties, was.
We open on a spinning globe, shining blue and green in a sea of black.
Portentous voice-over: Where in the world are you going?
High-pitched local dj: To Speedwell Dry Cleaners!
Accompanied by a static slide with phone number and address.
Sudden flashback to the Odeon in Preston, then on Fishergate in the centre of town, where no film was complete without an ad for Ian Head, the local motorbike dealer, and his tagline ‘Head for Honda!’
The two that stick in my mind from the early 90s before I left the UK were the Bacardi one (Peckham….) and the Nescafe one soundtracked by “I can see clearly how”.
Tea – Best Drink Of The Day. Much needed marketing for a beverage that is hardly known or drunk in the UK.
Also Lipsmackin’thirstquenchin… a classic.
The cynic in me thinks the advertising agency have seen a government contract as a windfall with little in the way of oversight, and can sell the armed forces adverts in bulk, regardless of target audience, as a lazy box-ticking exercise to get their cash.
The Ad Agency Execs don’t care, as they’re probably sunning themselves in the Bahamas.
One way or another, we’re paying for them.
@fentonsteve
Not sure about now, but stuff like Army Recruitment ads probably count as APIs (Announcements of Public Interest), in which case cinema chains would be expected to run a certain number of spots each week/month/year.
What usually happens in such cases is that the government puts out a tender to agencies who can then pitch their creative ideas for the campaign being tendered. The agency that submits the most impactful concept and most competitive budget wins.
While the money they will make on production is minimal, agencies love doing APIs because they are a great showcase for creativity and often win awards (Modesty forbids me from mentioning how I know all this)
@deramdaze – leaving aside the advert question: your post sounds very patronising with regard to your fellow audience members. Like you, they are supporting the cinema and watching films – are they less than you because they don’t attend “the more arty/foreign films“?
I suppose it does but I’ll let you worry about that.
What I reckon is that the government don’t expect people in their late 70s/80s to join the armed forces, at least I presume they don’t, but do recognise that this is exactly the age group who will be reading about ‘small boats’ in the Mail and Express, and a gentle (actually three ads is more of a sledgehammer) reminder of the military doing their thing will do no harm to the Tory Party’s election prospects in 2024.
I have never known three ads for the military for any film before – not even a war film – and these weren’t Help for Heroes’ ads, these were all recruitment ads.
Now, I’m off to the local WI meeting to sell scaffolding and power drills, and after that to a toddler’s group to shift some Dean Martin CDs.
Well, that sounds like bollocks – but I’ll let you worry about that.
Probably they think those who watch arty/foreign films are workshy commie pinko types who they don’t want in the forces. Hence recruitment elsewhere. Almost certainly the case.
Bloody dodgers, eh!
Eh?
I still don’t know what a dodger is.
A dull biscuit with jam around its hole.
Hurrr….
@Retropath
A lusciously inventive assemblage of jam, cream and biscuit, the Jammie Dodger is anything but dull, R.
Were Proust born in England and embarking on Rememberance of Things Past today, I think there’s a fair chance it would have been a bite into one of Burton’s finest that set off the 3,200 pages that followed
It’s Fox’s Jam’n’Cream (I’ve just checked the name on the pack in my cupboard) which have the cream which elevates them to a vastly higher plane. Jammy Dodgers are just dry biscuit and sticky jam which could pull a filling out from 20 paces.
Fox’s made just down the road from me.
Well, I like them. I’m not sure this really helps matters.
@kid-dynamite
Cuh! Call yourself an AWer…
Could you maybe PM me when you find out
Please Sir, me neither.
My entire cinema-going life has involved sitting through irrelevant ads I had no interest in. Bit like Twitter really.
@mikethep
Do you not bother staying for the actual films then, M?
👏👏
This is the catchy number that had the whole cinema fruggin’ in the aisles.
I love ads like these where youngsters are having a great time because they’ve got something. In this case, they’re hot dogged up.
There’s a Coca Cola ad on TV at the moment where someone arrives at a gathering with lots of bottles and then celebration, music being cranked up, dancing and the party really going “off”.
This would never, ever, happen at a real party unless everyone was five.
Surely everyone was 5?
You might have to help me here. Do you mean everyone was 5 years old once upon a time? If so – well, yes, that’s true.
I’m not sure where that leaves us.
Poorly worded joke. I could have added the word once on the end. Actually, it’s a poorly worded poor joke.
As someone who regularly makes poorly worded poor jokes, I respect that.
Like this?
Thankfully in Canada there are no commercials before the film starts, there are 10-15 minutes of trailers, but I can live with that. I also sometimes take my seat 10 minutes after the official starting time to avoid them
What really boils my piss is adverts, especially the anti-piracy ones featuring a certain ex-Radio 1 DJ, at the start of DVDs which I have purchased. “F*** off Simon, I’ve paid for this”.
At least the “home-taping is killing music skull & crossbones” thing only appeared as print on an inner sleeve. Imagine if someone actually read it out before the music started.