Attack of the 40-foot ads

Debra Yaruss hates commercials. Especially at the movies, where she’s seen grainy, 40-foot versions of the same annoying ads she sees at home on television. Standing with friends outside Irvine’s Edwards 21 megaplex on a recent Sunday afternoon, the 33-year-old San Diego resident says emphatically, “Commercials. Make. Me. Ill.”

Of course, she could arrive later to miss the ads, but then, she figures, she might not get a seat, and besides, she never can tell when the movie is actually going to start. Being forced into commercial captivity has made her angry, she says. “I want to go see a movie and not be assaulted by commercialism.”

Well, it’s too late for that. Moviegoers across the country have been increasingly bombarded by advertising over the past few years, and not just in the theater. There are ads and promotions, marketing surveys and product samples in the lobby, at the concession stand, and even on the way in from the parking lot. In fact, Yaruss and her friends had succumbed to marketing survey-takers working the weekend crowd outside the megaplex. For a few Tootsie Roll Pops, they had watched trailers and given their opinions to help movie studios fine-tune pitches. A few booths away, marketers for a pain-relief cream had Pete Rose in tow, looking for people to endorse the product.

For fans like Yaruss, this ubiquitous hard sell is transforming the moviegoing experience, once regarded by cineastes as almost holy. Unheard of even a few years ago, the “pre-show” at some theaters can now last 25 minutes or longer, during which theater companies run half a dozen non-movie-related ads (including one for the Los Angeles Times) and four or five trailers for upcoming movies -- some of which won’t be released for nine months. Moviegoers like Yaruss don’t know who to blame: the studios, which have pressured theaters to add more and longer trailers, or the theater owners, who have been coping with financial woes by courting advertisers on screen and off.

So far undaunted, people continue to go to the movies (this year’s box office is about to set records), and the Edwards megaplex is as good a place as any to see how advertisers seek to take advantage of that. The megaplex is owned by the world’s largest theater chain, Regal Entertainment Group. Last year Regal merged three bankrupt movie houses (Edwards Theaters Inc., United Artists Theater Co. and Regal Cinemas Corp.) and instituted an aggressive marketing campaign, including hiring its own advertising sales force to round up more ads to be shown in its theaters.

Not all theaters run commercials. Decisions on the number of trailers or commercials are made by individual theater owners. Art houses and independent chains tend to have fewer ads. “It’s a matter of management style,” said Milt Moritz, president of the California chapter of the National Theater Owners Assn.

For the Sunday matinee, each customer at Edwards 21 who had just paid $6.50 to get in was given a promotional ticket for free Raisinettes with the purchase of a Coke. In the airy and cavernous atrium, light streamed down on a mid-lobby display of popcorn tubs, and drinking cups advertised Coke and an upcoming movie, “The Wild Thornberries.” At the refreshment stand, popcorn bags carried ads for United Way, Target stores and more movies.

One patron said he admired Regal’s creator, Colorado billionaire Philip Anschutz. “If you look around,” said Jim Chiate, 33, of Coto de Caza, waving his arm around the lobby, “every inch in here is a way for him to squeeze out more money.” Chiate isn’t irritated by the commercials. “I’m not going to show up a half-hour early to watch commercials,” he said, “but if he wants to show commercials and get paid for it, more power to him.”

Regulating start times

So far only one organization, Commercial Alert, a nonprofit founded by Ralph Nader, has officially protested the proliferation of commercials in movie houses. The group has encouraged municipalities to pass laws requiring theaters to tell people when the movies, not the ads, start, and asks activists to fight back. Executive director Gary Ruskin said no city has yet passed a law. But, he said, “we know some people yell ‘No commercials!’ during movie ads.”

Less demonstrative moviegoers simply employ the avoidance strategy, which requires guessing when the movie will actually start. Take that recent Sunday, for instance. Those who arrived at the advertised start time of 2:30 p.m. to see “Sweet Home Alabama” settled in with a smattering of other folks while movie quizzes and ads for Coke appeared on the screen. There was a pro-military trailer, and several spots from Regal -- “We’ve got great jobs for you!”

“Call this number to advertise here.” The patrons heard some nice music followed by a suggestion that they pick up the CD after the show at one of the stores in the surrounding mall.

When the lights dim, the filmed commercials began for the Los Angeles Times, the NBC fall series “American Dreams,” Audi, T.J. Maxx, Sprite and Coke.

After five trailers for upcoming attractions, an ear-jolting Dolby sound ad and a stomach-churning, computer-generated roller-coaster commercial urging people to buy more Coke and candy, “Sweet Home Alabama” began. The theater was full. The time now was 3:05 p.m.

Like Yaruss, many people say it’s the commercials, and not necessarily the trailers, that drive them nuts. Trailers are “the only way I find out about movies,” says Yaruss’ friend, Alina Sorkin, 30, of Irvine.

Still, she says, “You get sick of the repetition, of hearing all the best jokes in the trailer. It can ruin the movie.”

The women thought it would be fun to give their opinions of upcoming trailers when they were approached by employees of Action Entertainment Talk, a marketing company hired by several movie studios. They told the survey-takers they thought the trailer for the sequel “Analyze That” looked too much like the first movie, “Analyze This.” Leo Lowenthal, an Action Entertainment Talk employee, said the survey helps studios like Disney, Miramax and Paramount to gauge reaction and make fixes to trailers and movies as much as six months before their release.

Advertisers love moviegoers. Not only do they represent a broad demographic, they also have money and have shown they don’t mind spending it. Elsewhere around the country, advertisers have hawked cell phones and shampoo in and around movie theaters. The military has plans to set up recruiting kiosks in theaters. Regal plans to install technology, and use its 5,800 screens during off-peak hours to show concerts, and religious, business and sporting events. Commercials may also be shown on the plasma screens now used in some lobbies for trailers.

A few yards from Yaruss and her friends, employees from a marketing firm were asking people to try a pain-relief cream called Relief RX. If they liked it, their testimonial would be videotaped and maybe shown on television. For participating, they got a tube of cream and a handshake from Pete Rose, the major league hit king denied a spot in baseball’s Hall of Fame because of his alleged gambling activities. At the moment, Rose, who endorses the product, looked listless, hunched over in a chair, staring at the ground.

Advertising consultants say the commercial assault is only going to get more sophisticated. Already some theaters allow advertisers to target the audience by movie rating and will soon be using the digital technology to target consumers by ZIP Code or the type of movie being shown.

Regal plans change

To lure back the moviegoers who arrive late to avoid the ads, advertisers are trying to make their spots as entertaining as the trailers.

And Regal plans pre-show reforms starting early next year, said Kurt Hall, CEO of Regal Cinemedia, the subsidiary that oversees advertising. Instead of cheesy slides for local advertisers and rolling stock commercials that run into the advertised show time, Hall said the chain will distribute a prepackaged 20-minute digital pre-show to its theaters. “The program will run until the advertised show time,” Hall said. “If a movie starts at 7, we’re going to start our show at 20 minutes of 7.” Roughly 65% of the show will be educational and informative shorts provided by NBC and other media entities, and only 35% will be advertising, a spokesman said. Hall declined to elaborate on the business reasons for the reforms, but said the pre-shows will be digitally targeted by movie rating and ZIP Codes.

“Our primary goal is to just provide a good entertainment experience for our customers, and a good marketing platform to advertise brands and products,” he said. In the end, viewers like Yaruss may find their dilemma more palatable but fundamentally unchanged. “The deal we’re making with the patron,” Hall said, “is that they can decide what they want to do -- and risk getting a good seat or not.”