Friday, January 4, 2013

Whatever It Takes - Part I

It will be interesting to see if the advertising for next week's ASO concert series works (I'm assuming those in charge of that department know how to track the effectiveness of their efforts). The selling point that has been chosen is Scheherazade (although I'm more interested in hearing Michael Gandolfi's clarinet concerto, to be premiered by Laura Ardan). The ad (check out picture below) features a sultry, pouty model wrapped in what looks like a red bedsheet and clutching what appears to be a chef's knife (Wusthof would be my guess). I'm still laughing at the enlarged postcard version that just came in the mail.

Exactly what sort of audience do they think this will attract and what expectations would that audience have? And where does the knife come in? Wasn't it the sultan that was going to kill Scheherazade until she started telling the 1,001 stories?

Let's hope no one shows up thinking it's the ballet version...

Seriously, it's an unfortunate choice from another perspective - given the recent and on-going debates about violence in our society and the means that create it - that the organization opted for an extremely literal rendering to plug the concert. Using sex to market classical music is increasingly considered de rigeur - OK, fine. But they could have stopped there. And saved the money on the knife.




8 comments:

  1. I despair ... I look at what other sophisticated markets are doing around the world and we look so bush league in comparison it makes me cringe.

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  2. Maybe the ad department thought Tosca was on offer ... or Samson and Delilah ... or Medea ... maybe they thought that any of those knife-wielding sopranos would stand in nicely for the sharp-witted Scheherazade, who used her WORDS rather than a WEAPON. I think if you're going to succeed in promoting classical concerts, you have to know the score.

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  3. I am left speechless; while the photograph is quality, the message is just sort of ridiculous to me . . . and I am interested in knowing about this new tag line at the bottom:
    The ASO. Go!
    Is that supposed to encourage someone to race out and grab a ticket? Lame.

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  4. I don't mind pop culture sampling for opera or classical concert promotions ... as long as the reference is intelligent. The attempt to update the work as 'The Real Housewives of Persia' is just plain lazy. Shouldn't SOMEONE in that organization be familiar enough with this particular work to know that the sex and knife angle is antithetical to the Scheherazade legend? Rimsky-Korsakov understood the strong themes that link this story to our time ... what Marcia Chamberlain called "the impulse to meet evil, danger, or disintegration of the spirit with invention"

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  5. I showed this ad to friend and asked what he thought it was for and he said it looked like an ad for a new club in Atlanta. Probably Not what they were hoping for....

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  6. Yes...Sally determined the photo actually came from a photo stock resource (so at least that should have been cheaper than a custom photo shoot). However, it would seem to have many potential advertising uses, although for industries and target markets not usually associated with symphonic music.

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  7. There is a letter from Stanley Romanstein in the program for this concert outlining this new advertising style, as well as other changes. The letter includes the sentence, "We're not going to take ourselves too seriously."

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    Replies
    1. That's not always a good thing, unfortunately, as in Nero fiddling while Rome burns.

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