https://www.businessinsider.com/disney-world-expensive-middle-class-2018-12
I remember when our kids were little in the 79s & 80s, my wife and I could easily afford to take them to Disneyland any time we wanted to.
A young family today with three kids is not getting off for less than $700 a day after tickets, food and a few "cheap" toys and hats.
I think that it's more than artificially trying to keep the crowds down; the real targets are the lower middle class and the poor.
Movies are shit now. They keep coming out with remakes, reboots, sequels, God knows how many super hero movies (they've ruined the genre for me), and and endless and bland action films catered to not culturally offend overseas audiences, particularly in China (who has way too much influence in Hollywood).
It's boring. It's lazy.
When ticket and concession prices go through the roof, of course the $$$ figures still look good. And our population is larger than ever. But don't tell me the movies are better than ever. That's absurd.
People remember things like "Where's the beef?", "Don't squeeze the Charmin," "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," etc.
Now it's just bland, boring, and unforgettable.
And marvel movies are well made. I personally don’t care for most of them but getting angry about them being made is absurd. They make money and it allows studios to take chances on smaller projects.
But again, you keep limping in Marvel with A24 and I don’t know why. And if you don’t know what A24 is I suggest checking them out, they put out amazing content.
Remember when the radio used to be good? Well, the radio sucks now but music is still great, tons of innovative artists that don’t get airtime. It is the exact same as the movies, most can’t afford to be in them if the profit is t turning.
But it's endless now. You don't have to take my word on it. Many have done pieces on how boring and bland everything is getting, including music. There was a recent Spanish study on how music has regressed and AI can now predict which music will be popular based on current trends.
I just can't believe that anyone who has seen how many remakes have come out every year for the past decades can't see how lazy Hollywood has become.
As for Disney they're one of the most successful companies in almost every metric. LMAO saying they're not run well right now.
No, it's not. They just aren't good at it. Sometimes you can't even tell what they are selling or promoting. Even the Super Bowl commercials are uninspiring now.
I don't think the universities are preparing people to be very creative. Or the industries are afraid to use create people. It's all corporate blandness now.
As for Disney they're one of the most successful companies in almost every metric. LMAO saying they're not run well right now.
Yeah, Disney has done a fantastic job with Star Wars.
Everything is bland.
Disney price is $159 for a day during peak times - it goes down per day if you go for multiple days. That's up to 15 hours some days and many people take advantage of much or all of that time. That price includes rides, shows, meeting the characters if you want.
My wife is going to see Billy Joel at Fenway and I paid $202 per ticket with the ridiculous ticketmaster fees.
that is for about a 3 hour concert.
Have concerts abandoned the middle class?
Movies are what? $15 for 90 -120 minutes (I seriously have no idea)? similar scale as Disney - slightly less, That's over $100 relative to Disney.
Sporting Events? Bruins tickets also over $150 each for average seats with fees and that doesn't include parking.
like I said in my initial post - it's all about supply and demand.
And the "abandoning the middle class" is a myth perpetrated by politicians.
They already remade Psycho, Pink Panther, Arthur, Footloose, etc. When's Gone with Wind, Godfather, Casablanca?
People remember things like "Where's the beef?", "Don't squeeze the Charmin," "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," etc.
Now it's just bland, boring, and unforgettable.
Cadbury has been running the same ad for it’s chocolate eggs every Easter season since I can remember.
It’s as perfect now as it was then.
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The industry now is the same as always. Reboots have been made since Hollywood existed. The original movies made have been re-packaged hundreds of times over it's not anything new. Also there's plenty of original stuff as well but if you don't want to seek it out then it's on you for being lazy.
As for Disney they're one of the most successful companies in almost every metric. LMAO saying they're not run well right now.
Yeah, Disney has done a fantastic job with Star Wars.
The #1 domestic movie of all time. They did fine. You didn't complain about Return of the Jedi?
People remember things like "Where's the beef?", "Don't squeeze the Charmin," "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," etc.
Now it's just bland, boring, and unforgettable.
This is a great point.
I often wonder how effective some ads even are or if companies even care.
A lot of times people don't even know what the commercial was for since it has nothing to do with the product.
Miller Lite commercials were classic
Energizer Bunny
Heinz ketchup (anticipation)
Oscar Meyer
Hey Kool-Aid
I'm sure there are more...
Doesn’t mean their music doesn’t suck that much more shit.
1. People have mini movie theaters in their homes now, unlike the decades before, when 20-inch square screens running on tubes were the best people had in their homes.
2. You can tell richer, longer, deeper, sprawling stories in episodic television than you can in a 2-hour movie. That attracts good storytellers now more than the tight limits of cinema.
It's pretty hard to say that "Hollywood sucks" in the age of The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and on and on. Television never saw anything like those shows before the mid-1990s.
As for Disney, I'm actually pretty excited to see what they do with their live-action Star Wars TV series (The Mandalorian, the Cassian Andor series, the rumored Obi-Wan Kenobi series). Getting out of the restrictive "Skywalker saga trilogy" model might be just the kickstart they need.
The small upstarts I was referencing were on the non-content creator end - the small biz/startup brands who have been smart using social media / influencers for a fraction of the cost of what big brands were/are spending on big media. A lot of interesting businesses succeeded that way, some massively so in ways that just wouldn't have been possible without generating huge followings through non-traditional channels (think halo top).
There are a few small upstarts on the marketing/entertainment content creation side but more have sank than swam.
Disney Land/World has always been THE place to take the children (happiest place on earth) etc.
Like I said, back-in-the-day, it wasn't painful. I remember even big families could pull-it-off, once-in-a-while. These days, forget it.
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re: commercials. I am convinced that some of these companies could run the same ads from the 1970s-1980s and still be more effective.
People remember things like "Where's the beef?", "Don't squeeze the Charmin," "I'd like to buy the world a Coke," etc.
Now it's just bland, boring, and unforgettable.
This is a great point.
I often wonder how effective some ads even are or if companies even care.
A lot of times people don't even know what the commercial was for since it has nothing to do with the product.
Miller Lite commercials were classic
Energizer Bunny
Heinz ketchup (anticipation)
Oscar Meyer
Hey Kool-Aid
I'm sure there are more...
People remembered ads like those back then because an exponentially higher number of engaged people who actually saw those ads and paid attention to them in the first place. When there were a handful of channels people watch, and no such thing as DVR, no ad free platforms like netflix, and no such thing as a cell phone you could browse at the slightest whiff of boredom, it was a lot easier to get people to remember things.
They've quantified it scientifically and humans are being inundated with some 1000's of more ads every single day (in way more mediums). There was no way for recall to keep pace, nor was there any way to maintain the level of quality in a medium whose real impact stretched thin due to cable + DVR long ago. I don't remember where I heard this but here's an analogy - if you think back to whenever you first got email, every new email was a big deal. People actually wrote each other long form messages. Now we all get at least 20-30 spam emails a day, if not more, that get paid 0 attention and are easily ignored either through spam filters/tabs that weed them out or just by our brains being programmed to search for the 1 out of every 30 emails we care about in the slightest. For over a decade ad space on tv has been just as watered down as email marketing is today (which is why prime time ad spends have been falling for 20+ years). Is the quality of the ad content discernibly worse? Maybe, but not sure how anyone would know or if it matters because like marketing emails and trees alone in the forrest, most commercials go virtually unseen/unengaged with.
Disney Land/World has always been THE place to take the children (happiest place on earth) etc.
Like I said, back-in-the-day, it wasn't painful. I remember even big families could pull-it-off, once-in-a-while. These days, forget it.
we're talking 70's/80's for peak commercials.
Data does not support your post.
today maybe some of what you say is true, but what about the 20+ years from 1990 - 2010
and live TV is still the dominant form of TV watching even for Gen Z and millennials. though the time spent is down from the past as you say.
No idea how email is relevant, my kids (gen z) don't even really use email and probably won't as a productivity tool so spam emails that don't get seen by them are not something I'd expect traditional advertisers to consider.
Plus, we're really talking things like Super Bowl ads, etc. not ads during Ellen or mid-day talk shows an those same ads are now an "event".
but IMO the quality HAS decreased and I don't think it's even controversial to say so.
we're talking 70's/80's for peak commercials.
Data does not support your post.
Your post is subscribing to the "most watched SB ever" press releases the NFL pumps out year after year despite the rating shares peaking in the 70's/80's. The population has gone up so sure total viewers have increased. And with exponentially more channels maybe total time spent too - but it's all way more fractured. Saturation + captive viewership is what led to engagement and value. Which occurred pre-cable. The 90's (and early 2000's) were the last gasp of the advertising golden age on TV. Then live sports got a mini golden age because they were "DVR proof", that's mostly worn off though they are still the best alternative because there aren't very many ways to achieve mass. I can assure you the business of TV did not peak after 2010 no matter what pr numbers are put out to keep capturing the biggest slice of the pie possible.
Occasionally you'll see a gem. But the best commercials are often made in other countries for their markets.
I'm dead serious. If I ran one of these big companies, I would run the old commercials today. Same ones. I guarantee they would get 100x the attention, just from a novelty perspective.
But the movie industry has made the strategic decision to focus on overseas markets, so the story telling has been minimalized while the explosions have been increased.
Disney whistleblower told SEC the company inflated revenue for years - ( New Window )
Do you really think people just forgot how to write? It’s no different than how analytics have become entrenched in sports - many think baseball stinks now while I think the forward thinking new age approach is smart and fun. You don’t have to like the current commercials, but the why is important - they don’t care about you, you aren’t their target audience.
And it has nothing to do with my age. I'm 51, not 80.
Yes, the point of my original comments are these people today are WORSE at their jobs. They are dumber and lazier.
You're using a lot of nice verbiage in your responses, but the ads aren't better. They are worse. And I don't expect the advertising community to produce material explaining their failures. So of course you are going to hear all of this bunk about what a great job they are doing. Bullshit.
Years ago, you had the classic VW "da da da" ad. I bet you they sold a ton of cars because of it. I can't even remember the last VW ad (for the American market) that caught my attention.
Do you really think people just forgot how to write? It’s no different than how analytics have become entrenched in sports - many think baseball stinks now while I think the forward thinking new age approach is smart and fun. You don’t have to like the current commercials, but the why is important - they don’t care about you, you aren’t their target audience.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that even while digital ad /marketing techniques are outpacing traditional TV ad spends, there is still 70+ billion dollars a year spent on traditional TV ads.
Do you really expect people to believe those ads are not intended to "sell" products or services but are simply meant to attract buyers some other bland/unimaginative way?
You also seem to ignore the fact hat 2019 is the first year that non-traditional TV advertising is not the #1 advertising spend on the planet (a trend expected to revert in 2020 - with the election and olympics). What happened until now, when traditional TV ad was still #1.
Bland and boring. And lazy copycats.
Do you really think people just forgot how to write? It’s no different than how analytics have become entrenched in sports - many think baseball stinks now while I think the forward thinking new age approach is smart and fun. You don’t have to like the current commercials, but the why is important - they don’t care about you, you aren’t their target audience.
You seem to be ignoring the fact that even while digital ad /marketing techniques are outpacing traditional TV ad spends, there is still 70+ billion dollars a year spent on traditional TV ads.
Do you really expect people to believe those ads are not intended to "sell" products or services but are simply meant to attract buyers some other bland/unimaginative way?
You also seem to ignore the fact hat 2019 is the first year that non-traditional TV advertising is not the #1 advertising spend on the planet (a trend expected to revert in 2020 - with the election and olympics). What happened until now, when traditional TV ad was still #1.
Live entertainment has definitely evolved to attract the rich, as in home entertainment has gotten resoundingly impressive, and attracted more middle class dollars. Nevermind the amazing content available on Netflix for instance (at the cost of 4 Blockbuster rentals a month) -- the cost per square inch for the best TVs is 1.50, and was 5+ dollars 20 years ago.
You see this in movie theaters, with fewer seats, recliners, and food service. Those who choose live entertainment want it really nice and are willing to spend.
But the movie industry has made the strategic decision to focus on overseas markets, so the story telling has been minimalized while the explosions have been increased.
like every other industry. It's really that simple. There's still a slight convergence around making high quality movies and making money, but the free market has dictated that the biggest budgets would go to the safest, broadest, franchisiest movies possible and audiences have rewarded it. And yes, a big part of that is global audiences because their money counts too.
It's the same reason football has more scoring, commercials, and side bs than ever before. Broad, safe, maximize $.
All forms of entertainment had/have enormous value and market forces place enormous pressure to pump it from all angles for everything it's worth. MLB is adding patches on uniforms within a few years. I believe Nielsen today estimated their worth around $11m in exposure for a brand. Haven't seen any estimates on the % of fans it will annoy or how much lifetime value it will jeopardize, but who cares? In 10 years it will be someone else's problem.
As for ads, we disagree on the why. I’m not suggesting ads are high quality, I’m suggesting that the money is spent on rebranding, frequency and specific targeting. So yeah thats probably at the cost of spending more time making an ad that impresses you but it works. You being impressed with a Subaru commercial isn’t going to make you buy a Subaru - I’m sure you’d much rather read consumer reports, Kelly Blue Book, etc. The goal is to plant the idea that you want/need a new car, then hop online for research, then they hook you with the real ads that work.
By the way, in one post you claim Hollywood has run out of ideas and another you say they cater to the overseas market - so which is it?
So I’m not ignoring anything, I’m simply pointing out that “bad” is subjective and there’s more to an ad campaign than just a TV commercial. It’s the internet age, ads don’t work the same way as they did 40 or even 20 years ago.
I worked on a branding campaign last year for a cage free egg company. They spent a fortune on their ad campaign. The made a corny TV ad for the sole purpose of pumping it out through youtube and social media. It worked. The social engagement was high and their coupon downloads exceeded expectations. That’s advertising now.
I would argue the FIRST goal of advertising is get you to notice.... to have you look up and watch the commercial. If it doesn't do that, the advertiser has failed.
There is no contradiction in what I said about the international market and lack of ideas. They are separate concepts that are fueling the boring blandness. Cultural concepts in storytelling that sell here don't often sell in China, India, Japan, etc. So the movies are "dumbed down" and the easiest way to do that is the mindless action flick. In addition to that, you have an epidemic of copying now. Look at the the last Star Wars triology. The first is the same movie as the New Hope. It's the same damn movie with new characters. It's like they aren't even trying now.
Modern music really does sound the same - ( New Window )
Not discussing online ads, but TV ads.
Why do you keep bringing up Star Wars. It’s 1 franchise that they will continue to pump because it makes money. It doesn’t mean writing for SciFi now sucks. Have you seen Ex Machina, Moon, Children of Men and the plethora of others? I’m guessing if you did they all suck and if you didn’t you won’t admit it.
I grew up on Rambo and Rocky too. I watched all the awful 80’s action movies and loved them. But they are awful, we just didn’t notice back then because it’s all there was.
But I seem to have struck a nerve here with you.
We'll just agree to disagree and move on.
For movies there’s an ocean of content that goes relatively unnoticed because of how hard it is to turn a profit. Most of these movies can’t afford the premiums that come with taking up a movie screen the weekend Toy Story 4 comes out. A24, Blumhouse, and a handful of others have found a way to make low budget movies pretty damn impressive while turning a profit.
As for Rambo, the last one was probably the best and Stallone is still an icon so that’s an easy moneymaker. Ryan Coogler, an impressive young director spearheaded Creed and made that arguably the best addition to the franchise. That was after 4 or 5 straight garbage additions to that series.