Advertising In Truth
Apparently the product-placement bandwagon has seduced live theatre. Advertising in plays. Why not? It’s everywhere else. I wholly endorse the idea. The great and wise “free market” makes everything better. Right? Of course. What’s really bizarre is that a tremendously effective vehicle for advertising has been largely ignored: literature. Get the customer when they’re most vulnerable. Use the emotionally manipulative content of novels to your advantage. Hell, a well-placed advertisement could even make a good book better:
It is a far, far better thing I do, that I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known. It's Miller time!
This is the future. Embrace it.
5 Comments:
Damn fucking right! If Defiant Theatre can do it with cigarettes, everyone else can also do it (PR nightmare ignored). I'm whole-heartedly waiting for specific brands of condoms and tampons to appear in Chicagoland theatrical productions.
"Nora, you shouldn't be so upset, simply because I'm concerned about how much money you spent on the children for Christmas. Are you having a heavy flow day? Don't you know that only Tampax has the comfort and absorption that you need?"
"Oh, fuck you, Torvald. We wouldn't even have these goddamn kids if you had used Lifestyles. They have nonoxynol-9. NONOXYNOL-9!"
Dr. Smith – Quite so. I did recall something about Defiant and smoking when I read the NYT piece, but since I wasn't a member of the company at the time, didn't see the show in question, and wasn't even in the state, I have only the vaguest of recollections regarding the brouhaha. Nonetheless, I was under the impression that no text was ever altered. But like I said, I'm clueless.
Allow me to interject. I was there in privy detail as the whole Klobbercunt fiasco ensued.
WARNING: Vulgar language ahead so stop reading if words like cunt and fuck offend you. Pussy.
Defiant has always been about subverting shit. Always. Even Fortinbras. Anyway...people on the outside had no fucking idea what to make of the situation. We actively sought out sponsorship from Camel for the show. Why? 1. Money. 2. Smoking figures heavily in the play. 3. What a great way to make money and be subversive by taking money from a sinful corporation as a commentary on the generation of the 50's and the marketing generation that it spawned.
Well, it turns out that the idea was so fucking brilliant that assholes like Cunt Klobberfuck completely didn't understand it and used it instead to sell newspapers. It's people like here that give a dollar a month to starving orphans in Mexico so they can feel good about themselves. Fuck that smelly bum trying to sell you streetwise.
I must surmise that Dr. Smith is (most likely) one of these obnoxious types that feel morally superior enough to make snide comments but never venturing into the gutter of profanity that I enjoy. They deem this 'taking the High Road'. I just call them pussies.
Was it a good idea? Fuck yeah. Make money while making a subversive comment on American consumer culture. But thanks to people like Klobbercunt and Doctor Smith, we never saw a dime from Big Tobacco. I think those bitches (Klobberpuke and Dr. Snitch) owe us money.
-stiggy
Thank you for reading, Dr. Smith. I appreciate it.
Stig, Defiant's hands weren't totally clean on that deal, either, though we were considerably fucked by that writer.
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