|
He's Not At A Theatre Near You – Globe and Mail
LORNA
DUECK – May 29, 2006
A
10-second ad that repeated a famous movie tease has proved too powerful
for the marketplace and its free-minded consumers.
"Seek
the truth" was the mantra of overexposed promotions for the
religious-fiction blockbuster The Da Vinci Code.
Since "Seek the truth" wasn't copyrighted, Campus Crusade for Christ,
Canada's largest evangelical mission, thought that could work for it,
too. It created a 10-second, flash animation ad that whispered "seek
the truth" as a swish unveiled Mona Lisa and "http://www.DiscussDavinci.com." Cineplex sold Campus
Crusade for Christ a $63,000 placement to have that spot run before the
movie, with a goal of scoring four million impressions on moviegoers.
That
was, until Cineplex discovered its new client was placing a religious
ad. It promptly cancelled the contract, citing its policy not to show
any religious advertising. "Religion is a very personal aspect of an
individual's life and can be a very contentious issue, so, in order for
us to not offend anyone, we don't allow advertising of any religious
faith," said Pat Marshall, Cineplex's communications vice-president.
"Quite frankly, I'm surprised at the attention this has garnered. It's
our decision to allow things on screen or not."
And
that's the cold truth about the marketplace: Those are the rules, even
if the movie is one that deeply offends Christian belief and
experience.
For
me, the core of what is offensive about Dan Brown's fiction is the
power that comes from the movie in its mysterious assertion that all
the evil in the world can be linked with the dispute over the divinity
of Jesus. The entertainment and selling power of media is eclipsing
facts and speaking to millions with disinformation.
Big
deal, some would say, it's just fiction, a movie ticket, just an
experience -- until it turns into a educational phenomenon, and polling
firms and media start making headlines with what people are "learning"
from the film. The Globe's own on-line poll queried: "The furor
surrounding the release of the DVC prompts us to ask, do you believe in
the divinity of Christ?" Fifty-four per cent said no. Earlier, Ipsos
Reid's polling found 17 per cent of Canadians believed the theories in The
Da Vinci Code.
The
spirit of communication theorist Neil Postman haunts this story, as he
warned that, as information increased, we would need controls to sort
through the good and bad. The Da Vinci
Code is the ultimate in no controls, Cineplex's decision to
ban religious ads, even 10-second ones, is ultimate control. It's
cultural and intellectual rot to not allow faith educators a 10-second
ad before an action-packed thriller fleeces the public with poor
historical work.
It's
hard to get to the bottom of the mystery in the corporate reasoning on
the religious ban in that context. At Cineplex, Ms. Marshall says the
fact that two Campus staffers, one in Calgary and one in Montreal, were
planning to discuss Mr. Brown's theories with people in theatre lineups
and offer them a mini-magazine of Christian history on the subject of
Mrs. Jesus and other ideas in the movie had nothing to do with why the
ads were pulled. Some media called Campus Crusade's planned approach
"stalking," but it is similar to the way I was approached three times
in a Cineplex lobby by promoters for the Smart Car featured in the
movie and offered their pamphlet.
A
mystery at Campus Crusade, meanwhile, is that this tempest started with
Braden Douglas, a 24-year-old who was sitting at his desk at Frito Lay
when he believes he felt God tell him to look around at his desk. "All
I saw were bags of chips, examples of graphs and sales, and
inspirational quotes on my walls about what success was and I had this
feeling that it was just so empty." Mr. Douglas did what centuries of
Christians have done -- investigated how to make a more meaningful
connection to God's purpose for his human story.
Two
years later, he's experimenting as the first marketing specialist that
Campus Crusade has ever had and has one focus: "to help people
understand the message of Jesus very clearly." Looks like he won't be
doing it at the movies any time soon.
Lorna
Dueck is executive producer of Listen Up TV.
|
