Conference overload
: Just came back from a conference in Detroit. Next I’m off to the Aspen Institute in Aspen. Off to the journalism education confab in Toronto in August. That’s why I turned down going to Always On this week, Blog On next week, Supernova a few weeks ago, and Lockerghnome in the fall. Too many conferences about blogging. Too little time to blog.
Beam me up
: How did I miss that Leonard Nimoy does nude photography?
The Seal of Censorship
: Ernie Miller is properly shocked at the movie industry cooperating with — even promoting — the frightening Parents Television Council by putting PTC seals of approval on movies.
This is tantamount to taking out ad with a screaming blurb: “Jerry Falwell says go see this movie or go to hell!”
The PTC is Brent Bozell’s self-appointed national censor. They are almost single-handedly responsible for the rash of complaints to the FCC. They are attacking the First Amendment and fres speech.
It’s bad enough that news organizations treat them as if they’re a real organization that represents the “parents” of its title — they sure as shit don’t represent me! — as opposed to the fanatics that they are.
But now, as Ernie points out, the movie studios are promoting the PTC by using its seal and that will come back to bite them in the butt, guaranteed.
Mini movie review
: Saw and really liked Spiderman 2 in Detroit and I have just one thing to add to the many rave reviews:
Nice dress.
Bad taste
: Just heard a commercial for Martha Stewart sale week at K-Mart, the night before she’s sentenced to the slammer.
Eisner’s review
: Disney dictator Michael Eisner tells a conference that he likes Fahrenheit 9/11.
Opinions re opinions
: I’m probably the last to see it this morning but in case I’m not and you are… did you see the NY Times editorial this morning lauding the inclusion of bloggers at the Democratic convention… without even the condescension and snarkiness I might have anticipated. The Times laments the old days, long gone, of unpredictable conventions (before politicians were smart enough to manipulate the news by controlling the event):
… All the more reason to hope, then, that this year’s one potentially risky innovation
Marketing, marketing everywhere…
: Fox is signing deals with malls to market its movies, says the Wall Street Journal.
In a typical campaign, shoppers will be bombarded with advertisements for the latest Fox movie on everything from huge banners in the garage to tray liners in the restaurants. In some cases, characters from the studio’s movie will wander around the malls; in others, retailers will give away premiere tickets to loyal customers. Teens will be one of the main targets.Fox’s “I, Robot,” which opens tomorrow, is the first movie promoted under the partnership. Four-by-six-foot banners of the star, Will Smith, are dangling from mall ceilings. Double-sided stickers adorn store windows, posters hang in elevators and alongside escalators, and various ad placements appear in food courts.
Smart: going to where the people are to market. I’d do a similar deal with airports; I spent five hours in one yesterday and would have considered trailers an entertaining distraction.
I’ve actually come to appreciate the Captivate screens now in elevators everywhere. It’s hardly a reliable place to get my news. But it gives me the weather and the Dow and a few headlines and most important, it gives me a place to look and something to do rather than accidentally ending up in a conversation with an elevatormate.
So there’s a marketing strategy: Grab my attention when I dread the attention of human beings: on commuter trains, in airports, in the DMV?
: Speaking of movie marketing, one of the interesting things Jerry Yang said yesterday (he pretty much reminisced and rambled) was how Yahoo helps movie studios market movies, taking the data the service collects on trailer viewership and advising them on distribution, marketing, and even DVD release.
