Have the movies lost it?

I read this week that attendance and revenue are down this year. I go to the movies quite often so it isn't my fault. However most films aren't made for me. “Dark Knight”? Not! A young woman said she didn't care for stories about the past, such as “The King's Speech” preferring modern stories like “The Social Network”, which is really just an update of “What Makes Sammy Run?” from the 1940's. Who wants costume stuff anyway, like Shakespeare and Ibsen, when you can see attractive young people ready to emote, mate and sometimes marry. I saw “Argo” this week and liked the script and the direction even though it's really an update on the WWII Errol Flynn escape movie: “Desperate Journey”--the one where the Nazi interrogator asks Ronald Reagan's character his nationality and Reagan answers, “Half American, half New Jersey”. A young guy in London said that he craved good writing but “Chinatown” was all he could find. I said, “I'll give you two wonderfully written films: “Double Indemnity” and “All about Eve”. He'd never heard of either one. One cheerful note, they're going to make some new Star Wars” episodes: “The Empire Holds an Election”? You can always count on remakes so look for: “King Kong in Hong Kong” with Jackie Chan and “The Count of Monte Cristo on Mars”, with Will Farrell. Anything that boosts the box office.

How to spend millions and annoy everybody

No, I'm not talking about the New York Yankees, I mean the round-the-clock bombardment of political advertising here in Las Vegas. More political commercials have aired here than anywhere else. It is the most saturated media market in the country, churning at the rate of 10,000 spots a week. I had insomnia last week and turned on the TV and there was a Crossroads message at 4 in the morning! Because I'm an Independent I'm in the crosshairs of Crossroads getting robocalls day after day. This is no way to befriend a voter. I don't care who they nominate I'm voting the straight Democratic ticket. There's an ancient saying in the advertising world where the client says, “I know half my money is wasted but I don't know which half.” I do: the half spent by the losers.

Incompetent nonsense

That's what ad legend David Ogilvy called the commercials he was seeing, and that was years ago. You can see it today in the barrage of adolescent bathroom humor and irrelevant messages aimed at the young. Lots of unshaven young men in bars with their condoms and credit cards swizzling beer with single young ladies. What's the message? It's not taste or value and certainly not up-market status. You can see it in the worst campaign on the air: Geico insurance. Ogilvy also said there were no good ads, only good campaigns and Geico is a cacophony of conflicting campaigns that includes flying pigs, banjo players and a lizard with a down-market English accent. I was told as a young copywriter to avoid borrowed interest such as opening a commercial with an erupting volcano and saying: “Speaking of volcanoes have you tried our coffee?” It's all volcanoes now with little time for product benefits. The missing link is good copy. The art guys and the producers are calling the shots and the poor copy guy is still pleading: “What does it mean?” McLuhan warned that television would pollute the thought environment and I now think that today's advertising is obstructing the economy by not serving our real needs. We're in a tough recession. We need real ideas for frugal, intelligent living not big dumb wasteful dollars supporting overpriced brands. The iconoclastic adman Howard Gossage tells the story of a soap company owner who says that if his ad spending stopped his market share would drop, and Gossage's answer was, “Would anyone in America be any dirtier?” You can still sell with taste, wit and class. Maybe I shouldn't be blaming the agencies since they're only in it to make a buck. Perhaps we have to get down on all fours and look at it from the client's point of view.