Two sticks. One shitty, one witty.

Two sticks. One shitty, one witty.

Two films seen in the same sequence of cinema ads.

Both attempting to influence audience behaviour.

Both adopting a “stick” approach.

Both showing the potential consequences of failure to comply with said behaviour.

But one ad beats you over the head with a shitty stick from the “woe betide you” school of advertising.

The other is a witty stick whose humour, humility and emotional intelligence actually makes it feel like a carrot.

Shitty…

Witty…

I’ve never pirated a movie in my life, but that first ad appeals to the anarchist in me and actually makes me want to pirate something out of spite.

I go to the cinema to escape and enjoy myself, not to be lectured and hectored by some nanny state quango.

The anti-piracy ad made a captive cinema audience feel like a trapped audience.

Whereas lots of people laughed at the Orange ad.

It made its point.

But more importantly it made a captive audience a receptive audience.

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