Lessons in small business PR
Here at Video One Productions, we appreciate the time and effort it takes to create a great movie. When you pay to go to a movie theater, you want to be able to enjoy the movie and relax. Some people, however, believe that texting in a movie theater is perfectly acceptable. They don’t realize what a distraction it is.
The Alamo Drafthouse, a movie theater in Austin, TX, is taking a stand against texting. They actively kick customers out if they are caught texting or talking on their phone during a movie. In 2011, there was one woman who was kicked out of the theater for texting. She was not happy about this and called leaving an angry voicemail about the incident. While the voicemail was meant to be serious, what resulted is a funny account of her woes as a shamed customer. The unintentionally hilarious message was used by the Alamo as a PSA about texting in the theaters, and has gone viral in the process. It’s a bit profane, so watch the video at your own risk.
While the Alamo has taken a light hearted approach to the situation, they still believe they were justified in kicking out the customer. However, the theater’s CEO is unhappy with how some people online responded to the anonymous caller, using hateful and disrespectful language. What started as a playful jab at movie texters, turned into an attack of the poor woman by online bullies. In the video below, Tim League takes a minute to respond to the online trolls.
It’s nice to see the head of a company take the internet so seriously, and handle such a sensitive situation as appropriated as possible. He’s calm, friendly, understanding, reasonable, and does an excellent job of representing the business in the midst of a media whirlwind. An experienced video production company could advise a company how to handle such a video. A video production company, for example, would be able to handle all aspects of the aforementioned commercial and the response.
