My Rant For The Week: Commercials Before The Movie

My rant for the week is probably one that I share with thousands of other moviegoers not only here at home but abroad as well. For this is a global pheonomenon. A Movement. A campaign, propagated by capitalist pigs. Money grubbing corporate hacks that find pleasure in the suffering of the downtrodden masses. A signal of the degredation of our times, the degeneration of the very fiber of our society. What Am I talking about? I'm talking about Commercials before the film begins!

Times have changed since the movies became a part of every civilized society's favorite recreational activity. It haslong since, gone a long way. Fore some, it is a relaxing break from the everyday hustle and bustle. For others, it is an escape from reality. For a few, even an obsession, but all of us go to the same theater and share the same experience... but before that, we need to know how Ayala Land has grown since it first started. We need to know how yummy Max Chicken is so that we can go eat there after the movie. We need to get termite insecticides because we may have subterrenian termites eating our house RIGHT NOW!! I make it a point that I come in five minutes early to be on time for the opening credits. But instead I'm bombarded with these pointless ads about termite killers and expensive corporate property

I dont have anything against previews. I love previews. Trailers for upcoming movies are kind of an extra perk for the money you pay for the movie. But you dont pay for the commercials, do you? What's up with that? Last time I checked, the person who paid for the movie was ME! They covering for theater expenses, Is my P130 not enough for paying for the aircon and the projector and the comfy seats. I don't even get a free tub of popcorn for the P130!

I can get the same movie in Quiapo for P60 (without cuts, even) and they expect me to change my attitude towards piracy? And when I do give in to their corporate ploy with emotional blackmail, the shove all these mis-targeted ads into my eyeballs! (Really now, do people looking for property or a condo or insecticides really go to the theaters for purchasing advice? )

As I said earlier, this is a global plague. Stephen King wrote for Entertainment Weekly a list of his Pet Peeves for 2004, the highest ranking pet peeve was..take a wild guess:


"Ads before theatrical movies. I pay $10 to see The Forgotten, and even before I get a preview, I have to sit through an ad for the Xbox videogame system - how insanely capitalistic is that? I think that the trend toward putting ads before films has grown slowly in America (it's common in Europe) because moviegoers see the local theater as a last refuge from the TV hucksters, and the chain owners have sensed that. But this is America, amigo, and if there's a buck to be made, someone out there is gonna try to make it.

I wish every moviegoer in America would stand up in the dark and shout, "TURN THAT SH*T OFF! TURN IT OFF! THAT ISN'T WHAT I PAID FOR! TURN IT OFF RIGHT NOW!"

Other rants from my online resources abound as well, take John Campea 's rant from TheMovieBlog:

"This stroke of idiocy is just too much. Yeah, let's fix the problem of people not coming to the theatres by driving more of them away... that should fix everything. How stupid can some people be?!?! I mean, really?

You fix the problem by investing in it... not trying to rape it more. LOWER the prices... REDUCE the amount of ad times. Yes, it will hurt financially a bit now... but in the long run it will bring some of the people BACK to the movies instead of driving them out. Get a clue and wise up you fricken commandos of the moron brigade."

Are we (the frequent moviegoers of the world) being conditioned unconsciously to buy all this stuff in purpose ('ya think?) Are we gonna have to accept the fact that we can be assured that that hideous Inquirer commercial will have to destroy the mood before you get to see March of The Penguins (seriously, I close my eyes or look away from the screen whenever this ad comes up)? How many times do we have to be told how cool the Nokia 8800 is? Am I alone in this. I sure hope not!

Anyways, on to my review...