Thursday, May 04, 2006

Another fantastic use of public mental space

Apparently they’ve made a film out of The Da Vinci Code. It also appears that Sony Pictures, who have put the money into the Ron Howard directed extravaganza, believe that people need to be told about this. A lot. So much so that Central station in Sydney has been converted into a three dimensional billboard in the areas attracting the most traffic, to the point where in every direction you look you are reminded that your role as citizen could be made that much more complete if you just took the time to see The Da Vinci Code. Of course, it would be nice if you read Dan Brown’s original novel on the way to the cinema, or at the very least listened to the Hans Zimmer composed soundtrack on your music delivery device of choice. It seems to be of genuine importance to the human race that this film is supported, so much so that the marketing doesn’t even begin to touch on this film’s potential to enrich the very fabric of our existence, it simply advises us mere mortals to “Be Part Of The Phenomenon”.


What are you doing still sitting here? Are you not aware they’ve made a film out of The Da Vinci Code?

I’m not so naïve as to bemoan the nature of this kind of saturation marketing, but it bothers me when advertising assumes a group of people are that stupid. This thing is going to make money, it’s a given. And how could it fail; the starring line up [which you would be able to see if I took the shot of the banners from the opposite side] contains nothing short of Forest Gump, Amelie, Magneto, Geoffrey Chaucer and Jean Reno! In doing this they seem to have covered almost every possible movie-going demographic, Ian McKellen for your superhero fans, Tom Hanks for… well, pretty much everything else, and with Audrey Tatou and Jean Reno you have TWO token French actors [because, you know, they go to the Louvre, and that’s in France, so they need someone to speak English in a French accent]. I for one am sold. Bring on May the 18th.

I hate that this sort of thing makes me angry, largely because I know it means the ad wins; since I’m spending my time droning on about it. Somewhere, there’s a marketing executive who is sitting in front of google tracking how people are reacting to their campaign, fingers crossed, hoping that someone who reads this may go to themselves “I want to go and see this thing that Daniel’s so upset about, just to see what all the fuss is about”. Don’t try and tell me that this is a ridiculous notion. As far as I’m concerned it’s no more ridiculous than spending millions of marketing dollars to publicise a film that most people are aware of based on a book that even more have read.

Back in the early days of my university degree, I came across the album Dispepsi by Negativland. Basing its content around the much-touted “cola war” of the late 80s to mid 90s, the tracks featured very heavily cut up commercials from two very large soft drink manufacturers, along with telephone conversations and really horrible pop songs [if for some reason you go looking for it, track 8, “All She Called About”, makes for some very eerie listening]. The thing I remember most about the album though, was a leaflet inserted into the liner notes from an organisation called One World Advertising entitled “A Proposal to Coke and Pepsi: Conclusions of the Corporate Cola Strategy Analaysis Project - WITH NON-PROBLEMATIC SOLUTION RECOMMENDATIONS”.

Basically, it suggests that both organisations could eliminate their marketing expenses by simply not marketing a product that almost every man, woman and child is familiar with. It’s a lovely thought. But then what would I have to post about? Content and quite possibly at one with the universe because stupidly receptive brain was free from bombardment of unsolicited data, maybe I could just read a book.

I’ve heard The Da Vinci Code is good.

4 comments:

pilgrimchick said...

I never bought into the Da Vinci Code, books or otherwise. I just thought it was a bunch of sub-standard nonsense meant to ignite the near sparkless flames of the unimaginative.

I've heard about the movie--and I agree on the saturation advertising, and this movie is a great example. In January, I was in London, and I remember coming on and off the Tube, up those long escalators, and all along the walls was ad after ad for this television show called "Supernatural" (I don't know if you get it down there). Thankfully, the sweet revenge is always when the show turns out to be mediocre, people watch maybe two episodes of it, and then you gradually see it fall off of TV.

Daniel Green said...

That's exactly what happened to it here. Channel 10 [who screened Supernatural locally] were so excited by it [or morbidly worried that no one would watch it] that they went to the extent of running advertisements in cinemas [which rarely happens in Australia]. I suppose the angle they were going for was that the show was just as scary or gripping as contemporary blockbusters. They were wrong, and the show didn't last through summer's dead zone of entertainment [at least I don't think it did... I don't have a tv].

Sadly, this brings to mind that these sort of schemes aren't new. Prior to The Da Vinci Code explosion, Central station was plastered with material relating to a "campaign for real beauty", which cynically contained a logo for a large brand of beauty products, and the list could go on and on.

One could argue that at least this sort of thing is transparent, that by going to Warhol-like lengths of repetition these kinds of campaigns are at least not hiding the fact they're trying to sell you something . I don't think it's transparent at all though. By forcing you to look at something so frequently, it's like your spirit is slowing being broken until you just give in. Worst thing is it works, otherwise they wouldn't go to these lengths in the first place. Even if The Da Vinci Code film is total crap, as long as enough people go through the gates on the first weekend in each respective territory of release the money is returned.

It's the same reason people go to watch Russel Crowe perform "music". Never underestimate the combined powers of boredom and curiousity.

Anonymous said...

So Dan...all this means we're going to see it on May 18 yeah? Oh and Mr. R & D Ad Exec Man, your welcome to come too.

Daniel Green said...

Of course they're coming, who do else do you think is buying the choc tops?