Keeping The Public Abreast
Promoting your work is arduous task. You create something and would like other people to know about it. Whether it's a book, a song, a painting, a play: it's rewarding if your work is brought to the attention of the public at large. In the case of play, you want people to know about it: where it will be showing, what time it starts, how much it is etc.. You can place an ad in the local papers, design a poster, print flyers to spread your information and hopefully people will be intrigued by your promotional material and want to see your play.
Take the case of Exit-Theatre Croydon. They are producing a play called "Anybody For Murder" which was written by by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner, who also penned hit TV shows such as The Avengers, Doctor Who, The Professionals and Thunderbirds.
A nice little farcical comedy murder play set on a Greek isle, where a man plans to murder his wife for the insurance and... well, hilarity ensues. But wait, it gets funnier. Exit Theatre designed this promotional advertisement -
Granted, it's a bit of an attention getter. If this poster was among ads for "High School Musical", "Cats" or "Sound Of Music", odds are your eye would drift toward the Exit Theatre promo. Perfect right? That's what any theatre group would want. You want people to look at your promotional material. Who could ask for more? Well, a local council could ask for more.
Yes, a local council found the poster "inappropriate" and were in great fear that local residents would be "offended by cleavage".
Exit Theatre was asked to modify the "offending" area of the ad so that the morality and decency of the masses would remain intact. Would it have been an issue if Kate Moss were on the cover? Dunno.
The point is, the council's objection has created more publicity for Exit Theatre's production than I'm sure they could have dream of.
An article about the poster ban appeared in the Croydon Guardian. (read: Publicity) It then spread to The London Standard (read: More Publicity) and then to Radio Jackie and to Nannyknowsbest Blog (read: Even MORE publicity) All free!
Is it me, or does it seem that negative publicity always seems to generate the Best publicity? I'm not advocating that any theatre group or artist should purposefully, create a controversial image. Because, in some cases it can work against you. (read: Kanye West)
And doesn't it seem when the "powers that be" want to object or stifle something they deem inappropriate, they actually bring more attention to it?
Exit Theatre could have just placed their posters and flyers here and there, a good number of people could have noticed and attended the production. "Anybody For Murder" could have had a nice little run at the Charles Cryer Studio Theatre and that was it.
But a council objection and demand for cleavage coverage, created more 'coverage' of publicity than any marketing whiz could ever conceive. I mean, here I am writing about it and I live in the States! (read: publicity)
Take the case of Exit-Theatre Croydon. They are producing a play called "Anybody For Murder" which was written by by Brian Clemens and Dennis Spooner, who also penned hit TV shows such as The Avengers, Doctor Who, The Professionals and Thunderbirds.
A nice little farcical comedy murder play set on a Greek isle, where a man plans to murder his wife for the insurance and... well, hilarity ensues. But wait, it gets funnier. Exit Theatre designed this promotional advertisement -
Granted, it's a bit of an attention getter. If this poster was among ads for "High School Musical", "Cats" or "Sound Of Music", odds are your eye would drift toward the Exit Theatre promo. Perfect right? That's what any theatre group would want. You want people to look at your promotional material. Who could ask for more? Well, a local council could ask for more.
Yes, a local council found the poster "inappropriate" and were in great fear that local residents would be "offended by cleavage".
Exit Theatre was asked to modify the "offending" area of the ad so that the morality and decency of the masses would remain intact. Would it have been an issue if Kate Moss were on the cover? Dunno.
The point is, the council's objection has created more publicity for Exit Theatre's production than I'm sure they could have dream of.
An article about the poster ban appeared in the Croydon Guardian. (read: Publicity) It then spread to The London Standard (read: More Publicity) and then to Radio Jackie and to Nannyknowsbest Blog (read: Even MORE publicity) All free!
Is it me, or does it seem that negative publicity always seems to generate the Best publicity? I'm not advocating that any theatre group or artist should purposefully, create a controversial image. Because, in some cases it can work against you. (read: Kanye West)
And doesn't it seem when the "powers that be" want to object or stifle something they deem inappropriate, they actually bring more attention to it?
Exit Theatre could have just placed their posters and flyers here and there, a good number of people could have noticed and attended the production. "Anybody For Murder" could have had a nice little run at the Charles Cryer Studio Theatre and that was it.
But a council objection and demand for cleavage coverage, created more 'coverage' of publicity than any marketing whiz could ever conceive. I mean, here I am writing about it and I live in the States! (read: publicity)
