The Twenty

I’m sure you have asked recently, what is the deal with all of the commercials before films? Now there is a new way to market this ploy with something called The Twenty. This is a catchy way of justifying twenty whole minutes of commercials before the previews and commercials attached to the print begin. And they have the gall at the end to remind you that if you have missed part of The Twenty you should show up to the theater earlier and catch it the next movie. How stupid do they think the public is that they would actively seek a punishment as if it were some sort of a reward.

What strikes me as odd is that many of these advertisements seem to be for TNT or NBC. Since TV has stolen the central influence and market once held by films, this seems ironic that you would use the movies to advertise TV. I guess marketing has come full circle, movies have been advertised on TV for years. Of course there is now a smaller market for films than there used to be, but you can bundle it in and still reach a wide but focused audience depending on the type of movie. You go advertising guys. I saw on CNN that they found a way to imprint logos on butterfly wings. I suppose it is just a matter of time until we are all walking advertisements.

Of course what really offends me is that The Twenty contains an advertisement for a reality television show. I don’t think anything has done more to degrade TV than the advent of reality television. Hopefully this is like the game show craze of the 80s and will fade out shortly. The only thing I am thankful for at this point on TV is that with the advent of TV shows on DVD some very good, but poorly received, shows are getting a second chance like Family Guy and hopefully (cross your fingers) Joss Weadon’s Firefly. It gives the TV directors the same opportunities DVD has given the film directors, the freedom to show their vision unfettered by the studio or the network. Since the quality of television recording and the things that can be done on a TV show have increase dramatically they need to be treated more like films.

Unfortunately network executives have gone the other direction with all but their top shows, axing shows with large production budgets and going instead for cheaper and less produced shows ala MTV’s The Real World. You would think they would make up some of the difference in production cost with the great DVD sales some of these shows are having. Meanwhile fine shows shot in a cinematic manner are refuse widescreen showings and cancelled as soon as they drop out of the top twenty in the Nielson ratings. A surprising trend since most TV shows take a season or two to discover their characters and really find their rhythm.

There are a few exceptions to this trend generally found on cable channels with shows such as Monk and Six Feet Under. They have already changed the rules about what constitutes a TV season, maybe they can redefine what constitutes good TV. Of course TV has a number of other problems right now brought to light, quite literally, by the Janet Jackson Super Bowl drama. They seem to be entering a period of self policing not unlike the Hays Code era in Hollywood. But for all of the political arguing about the content of film and television the truth is that these entertainment media are commercial and if the public did not want to watch this stuff, they wouldn’t make it since it wouldn’t turn a profit. I wonder if they know how much revenue they get from the commercials before the movies. Does someone go into a store and say, ‘well I never saw this product on TV, but then I was at the movies and there it was larger than life!’ Somehow I doubt it. The truth is that audience saturation is probably pretty much maxed out with television advertising and there really isn’t much need for advertising before movies.