Fifty Shades of Marketing

Yesterday the local River City Gazette featured on the front of the "local" section a full page "spread" on the new movie version of "50 Shades of Grey", that BDSM novel for sorority girls and tweeners that has become an international publishing sensation. The article had a 1/2 page still from the movie to take up space that might have otherwise been filled by the words of recently laid off reporters. There was another teaser photo on the front page to make sure you didn't miss the article.

What was the local rag's excuse for what to many eyes would appear to be paid advertising?

It turns out that our local Catholic Archbishop had issued an edict to his "flock" directing them to boycott said movie. The Archbishop's statement read in part:

"In this movie, a young Miss Steele is urged to sign a contract becoming a sex slave and agreeing to an abusive and degrading relationship" which, he pointed out "is in diret contrast to the Christian message of God's design for self-sacrificing love, marriage and sexual intimacy."

The comments section under this article was filled with lots of choice suggestions on the temerity of this edict, including several suggesting that it made some folks more likely to see the movie, and wondering where said Archbishop  was when all those randy Priests were encouraging altar boys to enter into "abusing and degrading" relationships.

But my take was as follows: was this paid advertising, or "earned media"? Either way it was bound to have the opposite effect from what the Archbishop claimed he was trying to accomplish. It made you wonder whether the Diocese would get a cut. You can't have better viral marketing, particularly as folks shared the article with saucy comments on Facebook and Twitter.

It flashed me back to the pre-social media days of my youth in upstate NY in the late 1950's.  The only sermon I can remember from those days was a Priest railing against a new movie called "Baby Doll", which he described as sordid and sinful, and which all good Catholics were told to boycott or otherwise face eternal damnation.  Even at 8 or 9 it sure made me curious about what I was missing.

This morning I pulled up the original movie poster and learned that the movie the Priest was demanding that my parents boycott was based on a book written by Tennessee Williams, and featured crusty old Karl Maldon, who, you may recall, played a Priest himself in "On the Waterfront" and later starred opposite Michael Douglas on "The Streets of San Francisco".  How could old good old Karl have been in a porn flick?

It makes me want to see if I can find it on Netflix.

I suspect that, as with 50 Shades, the Catholic Church's "ban" of "Baby Doll" just helped sell more tickets. You can't get better free advertising than that!

In the meantime, Mistress had been invited to attend an advance screening of 50 Shades tonight with a former work colleague. It's a benefit sponsored by a local purveyor of sex toys called "Pure Romance". I wonder if they invited the Archbishop?  Last night Mistress heard that her friend can't make it. She was offered the tickets and told to bring a friend, but has decided to pass. Of course Mistress may be the only woman under 70 left in America who has not read "50 Shades". She seems completely uninterested in seeing the movie too.

I think she's waiting for the F/m sequel.