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Movie theaters are starting to make LAist feel really, really guilty.First, the MPAA started running their own "Respect Copyright" advertisements, hosted by set painters, stuntmen and the jelly-bean dish refillers at craft service tables. Fortunately, people fought back. What followed was a call to arms against the MPAA's "Respect Copyright" in-theater commercials by a myriad of Internet sites, including our friends over at Defamer .
But just as stuntman Manny Perry has faded into the painted backdrop, yet another group has started to inundate movie-goers with another exciting bit of guilt-programming.
In what LAist likes to call the "You Wouldn't Steal a DVD, Would You? Huh, huh? Right?" ads, a young girl with a Internet-ready computer in her room (man, kids these days are so spoiled) is doing her nails, picking her fashion choices for a night out and talking on the phone — all while she downloads a movie off the Internet.
The spot goes on to ask a room of faceless movie-goers who have paid in excess of $10 for an evening at the movies if (a) you'd ever steal a car, (b) or a DVD, (c) or your mother's brand new liver. And since, no, you wouldn't — why would you illegally download a movie on your computer? It is a shoddily made, MTV-wananbe, jerky camera-angled spot that is starting to give people aneurisms around town.
LAist can't help but wonder what is next in this trend of making movie-goers feel guilty about their day-to-day activities? Are we to see commercials before our entertainment making us feel guilty for chewing gum with our mouths open, eating more than the daily recommended amount of carbs, or loaning our favorite DVD to our family?
Commercials before movies are, already, the most annoying part of leaving the house — but getting our hand slapped and being told how to live our lives (no matter how illegal or not) is even more infuriating. LAist says "No" to this annoying form of advertising, which is suckier than twenty-five Diet-Pepsi ads, strung together, using a song by Milli Vanilli as its background music, in 3-D, with Gilbert Godfried as its pitch man.
Yes, people, it is that serious.
