Racing to the Box Office?
“The Race Street Team and the Morality of Arts Marketing,” by Allie Houseworth was an interesting article featured in 2am.
First, a little backstory… David Mamet is a playwright known to be a provocateur. To promote his new play, Race, currently on Broadway, a street team of young women in red sequined dresses are passing out fliers about the play. The red sequined dress is important to the play (and the poster advertising the play) because the a character in the play (who I understand is talked about but not seen on stage) wears it during a sexual act in question. What makes the sexual act questionable was whether it was consensual… in this instance whether she was raped, or is lying about being raped.
Obviously this character, who doesn’t have any stage time and can’t and doesn’t physically speak for herself because of the set-up (the case is argued by lawyers on both sides), is some what of a stand in for a woman… since we know her exclusively through what she wore, and possibly agreed to, or didn’t agree to… and what she is either being honest about or lying about.
The red sequined dresses walking around Times Square sound like they’re serving a similar function, standing in for women… flirting and taking pictures with male tourists.
But beyond the anti or pro feminist interpretations, the article mentioned above asks a solid question, “…do they [the sequin clad women] convey an appropriate message so that an audience member’s expectations are met when they see the show?”
And though I understand (from one of the commenters on the article) that the women can answer questions about the show, and have seen it themselves, I wonder how many tourists are asking questions? How many are just coughing up their money and walking in expecting something totally different?
Yes, you can argue, a person should ask questions before they buy something, or buy into something… but beyond the responsibility of the consumer, the question here is about the responsibility of the advertiser (producers/marketers) to uphold truth in advertising.
My biggest concern lies in the fact that this play isn’t the only play on the great white way, it is one of MANY… so when the tourist who felt swindled and bamboozled by the campaign and sucker-punched upon seeing the show goes home and tells all his friends meekly about how he got duped, how much harder is it going to make it for the REST of the shows on and off Broadway to reach the next wave of consumers considering seeing a show in New York?
Theatre’s best advertising HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE WORD OF MOUTH.
More than anything, it’s about perception… and if the perception about marketers, producers, playwrights, the shows they represent, and theatre in New York in general is compromised, then we’ll all be paying an incredibly steep and dear price to sell a paltry few tickets to a single show.
–Sue
Add comment April 19th, 2010
