I remember when I was younger back in the 80's and 90's that this wasn't really a problem like it is today. If you are a millennial you may be under the impression that it has always been this way but I can assure you that it was not. Advertisers can ruin any experience, and previously I feel as though this was limited to situations where you were receiving something for free and it had to be paid for somehow - however as a paying customer I am starting to get a bit annoyed.
I used to enjoy getting to movies on time because of the previews. However, I suppose we don't really need that anymore since anyone with an internet connection can quite easily find all the previews they want. In the 80's, 90's and even early 2000's when I went to cinemas I don't recall ever being subjected to an advertisement about anything other than upcoming films, these days 90 percent of it is adverts for items completely unrelated to movies.
breaking the rules in the cinema!
Our film was start time was 12:50PM, the actual film didn't begin until nearly 1:30pm. We were subjected to nearly 40 minutes of non-stop advertisements. The strange thing about some of these was that there were 4 Coca-Cola adverts in there and this is strange to me. The only thing they even sell in the movie theater is Coca-Cola products so why are you doing this?
We then got at least 3 Isuzu truck advertisements, a few Toyota adverts, and a couple of insurance adverts and maybe there was 4 previews. I was so frustrated by the time the film actually began that I have decided that for 1 month, I am going to refuse to buy any products that are made by Coke. This will be easy to accomplish because I dont' really drink soda and when I do, I prefer Pepsi-Max anyway.
We also had to stand for the song to honor the King, but I don't mind doing that because it is actually a lovely song and the admiration the people of Thailand have for their Royal Family is always something I find quite touching.
Bill Hicks was an American comedian who was far more popular in the U.K. than he ever was in the U.S.. In one of his stand-up specials he would go on a 10 minute rant about how advertisers are ruining the world and said something along the lines of "if you work in advertising.... FK you.... there is no joke here, just FK you, you ruin everything you get involved in... FK you Fk you F**k you."
I have to say that I agree with Mr. Hicks, who unfortunately is no longer with us. In the future I intend to arrive at all movies 20 minutes late because even though I should probably just let it go and look at Partiko for those 30-40 minutes, I am easily made upset by crap like this and I am definitely going to avoid all products that are advertised in there in the future. I wish there was an online group for this so we could name and shame all corporations that are destroying what little enjoyment remains in life.