Sony resorts to some questionable marketing practices to promote new movies.

[Eye]

http://www.msnbc.com/news/581770.asp

June 2 — David Manning of The Ridgefield Press is one of Columbia Pictures’ most reliable reviewers, praising Heath Ledger of “A Knight’s Tale” as “this year’s hottest new star!” and saluting “The Animal” as “another winner!” The studio plastered Manning’s raves over at least four different movie advertisements, including “Hollow Man” and “Vertical Limit.” But Manning’s own life story should be called “Charade,” because he doesn’t exist. Challenged last week by NEWSWEEK about the reviewer’s authenticity, Columbia parent Sony Pictures Entertainment admitted that Manning is a fake, a product of the studio’s advertising department.

The Ridgefield Press (which was unaware of the deception) is a small Connecticut weekly, but that’s where any verisimilitude ends. An unidentified Sony employee apparently concocted the Manning persona last July, using the name of a friend, and attributed fictional reviews to him. Supervisors using the quotes in movie ads didn’t question Manning’s legitimacy. “It was an incredibly foolish decision, and we’re horrified,” Sony spokeswoman Susan Tick said of the hoax. “We are looking into it and will take appropriate action.”

In Hollywood, where desperate marketing tactics are the norm, news of the deception astonished even longtime executives. “I have run two studios over two decades, and I have to say this is a first for me,” says Joe Roth, whose Revolution Studios produced “The Animal” for Columbia. “It’s hard to believe. It’s terrible. Sony has to apologize and pull the ads.” Dick Cook, chairman of the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group, says: “That certainly does cross the line. We would never, never, never, ever do that.”

Sony is removing Manning’s quotes from “Knight’s Tale” and “Animal” ads, but some arts sections this past weekend were already printed before the fakery was revealed.

More to the story at the link above.

------------------
..:: Eye | Moderator | eye@dvdfile.com | Picture of foot. | AIM: heavybutt

[1138]

Sounds like somebody at Sony fucked up big time. Wow.

------------------
1138 - DVD File Forum Greeter
Ty Cobb wanted to play. None of us could stand the son-of-a-bitch when we were alive, so we told him to stick it!

[Ambushbug]

The Sony spokeswoman is named "Sarah Tick"? Yeah, right, like that's a *real* name...

That's really weird tho' ya know? I'm mean why bother making up your review and risk getting caught when you can just slip free movie tickets (and other studio crap) to any random small media reviewer who'll be happy to get his name on a movie poster? Just dumb...

AB

[This message has been edited by Ambushbug (edited 06-02-2001).]

[Miggy]

When someone at Disney basically says to you, "For shame, for shame!" then you know you've done something bad.

Miggy, the Thief

[Blade]

Kind of sounds like a lower level employee's joke that got way out of hand.

Still, does anyone really listen to those little blurbs anymore? I've thought they were mostly fake lately (unless I recognize the name, but even then...).

Kind of like "...A laugh RIOT!!" says Joan Mitchlin from the Seattle Kroner Gazette, and the full quote was "I saw Tootsie again last night and it was still a laugh riot. But this movie isn't. Avoid it like the plague."

[Eye]

Blade key stroked:
Still, does anyone really listen to those little blurbs anymore?

Unfortunately, I think a large amount of the "movie" going public still gauge a movie's quality those pull quotes.

I'm quite certain that at one time in my life, *gasp*, I may have as well.



------------------
..:: Eye | Moderator | eye@dvdfile.com | Picture of foot. | AIM: heavybutt

[saraswati]

i don't really understand why they need to do this, since there are some critics out there who seem to like the shittier movies. and most of the films they mentioned all seem to have one semi-decent quality. i'm sure someone, somewhere, thinks The Animal was funny. Hollow man had great FX. A Knight's tale has Heath Ledger, who is getting famous enough to where a lot of people are calling him a new rising star. And I'm sure someone out there thought vertical limit was really exciting. there is an abundance of shitty critics who love movies like those (or say something nice about any film no matter how bad), and on top of that, there are infinite ways to make a bad review sound good. why do they need to make up a critic?

------------------
"Crap, lousy ceiling!"

[1138]

No to mention the 'reviewers' who are paid to review a movie and write good crap about it. Was Columbia that cheap?

------------------
1138 - DVD File Forum Greeter
Women will sleep with you if you write a bad book.

[deepfry]

I'm really hoping that this was in fact a joke from a low-level employee, who then got caught up in the lie when his supervisor asked for more quotes from the sony-friendly reviewer. So the employee should get fired in a big way. If it was in fact his fault. I wonder if we'll hear anymore about this...

[SeanL]

verisimilitude

That's one heck of a word....
National Geographic moved two pyramids together for a cover of one of their magazines, George Lucas made Greedo fire first...so why shouldn't a studio make up a critic?



------------------
Sean

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[egman]

I does seem funny that Columbia would do something like this when there are enough less than compentent critics out there who could give positive reviews. Also, many times film reviews that were bad can have certain parts taken out of context, all of a sudden making the real review seem favorable.

IMO this is all bad business. People do take these things seriously(though I do not), so it seems like the studios are conning people into giving up there 10 bucks.

Generating a critic seems very underhanded to me. Criticism is about that--criticism. Undermining that idea only fuels the notion that Hollywood puts out garbage. Why would you need to do this if you thought the film was an good?

[saraswati]

Originally posted by SeanL:

National Geographic moved two pyramids together for a cover of one of their magazines, George Lucas made Greedo fire first...so why shouldn't a studio make up a critic?

well there's a big difference between photoshopping a magazine cover (something that is ok under unwritten journalism ethics, and happens all the time) and completely making up a good review for your film. i mean, it's not like nat'l geographic completely created 2 pyramids that didn't exist before.

i'm not sure what you're talking about with greedo.

anyway, the difference between this marketing scheme and other media fakery is that this steps completely over the line from promotion to lying. there is an unwritten code when it comes to marketing and journalistic integrity. it's ok to shift a critic's words to make your movie sound good, or use a quote in such a way to change the effect of what was said. but it is never ok to fabricate quotes or reviews, let alone completely make up a film critic.



------------------
"Crap, lousy ceiling!"

[SeanL]

i'm not sure what you're talking about with greedo.

I was refering to how outlandish the whole thing is.
BTW, Nat'l Geographic caught major flack for moving those 2 pyramids together. They printed an apology in a future issue.

[manigrasso]

Originally posted by saraswati:

i'm not sure what you're talking about with greedo.

When Star Wars first came out, there was a scene in the cantina where Han Solo is almost accosted by the bounty hunter Greedo. They have a little conversation while sitting at a table, and Han Solo shoots him under the table. During the Special Edition release, Lucas added footage that made it seem like Greedo fired first, so instead of Han Solo looking like a rogue who fired first to cover his ass, he's a more stereotypical "good guy" who lets the "bad guy" fire off a round, so his shooting is more justifiable.

And while I don't find the whole review thing as reprehensible as, say, Time Magazine making O.J. Simpson seem darker, it does beg the question: If you can't find a legitimate good review, why not just try to make better movies?

[SeanL]

I was assuming everyone knew about the Lucas/Star Wars/Greedo thing. Ohh well, They say assumption is the lowest form of knowledge.....guess I proved that one right.




------------------
Sean

What if there were no hypothetical questions?

[Drexl]

Actually, fake review quotes have been around for several years, but they have always been obviously bogus. I remember positive quotes from fictional characters such as Captain Hook, for instance.

[BathTub]

I spose you guys have heard that David Manning really is a movie reviewer here in New Zealand?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/index/0,1...810a10,FF.html

[Eye]

UPDATE!

http://www.msnbc.com/news/584419.asp

Two employees suspended over phony movie-critic scandal

(June 7) Sony Pictures suspended Thursday two employees without pay for one month for their alleged role in the scandal over a manufactured movie critic who provided fictional quotes on four Sony movies.

SONY DID NOT IDENTIFY the two employees, but four sources familiar with the investigation said the senior executive is Josh Goldstein, Sony’s senior executive vice president for advertising. Goldstein did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. A studio spokeswoman declined comment.

In a statement, Sony said it is "sanctioning the two advertising executives: one for his actions and the other for actions that occurred within the department he supervises." The studio also said it is creating "a new system of checks and balances involving both the publicity and advertising departments…to ensure the accuracy of quotes contained in future advertising campaigns and to prevent this from happening again."

Challenged last week by Newsweek over the authenticity of critic David Manning of The Ridgefield Press, a Connecticut weekly, Sony admitted it had invented the critic, attaching favorable quotes attributed to him on advertisements for Sony’s “Hollow Man,” “Vertical Limit,” “A Knight’s Tale” and “The Animal.”

------------------
..:: Eye | Moderator | MSN: ugsome@hotmail.com

[This message has been edited by Eye (edited 06-08-2001).]

[egman]

I just surprised that Sony did not have a system to detect this things in the first place.