By the mid-1990s, America had largely forgotten about milk. Breakfast cereal was mixed with tap water; cookies were dunked in wine; dairies were littered with bellowing cows, collapsed under the weight of their swollen udders. In the go-go grunge era, milk was simply not “alternative” enough to be cool. But then came “Got Milk?”—an ad campaign that reminded the nation of milk’s existence by smearing it on the faces of celebrities, and inspired ordinary folk to put milk in and around their own mouth-holes. Ever since, secretions from the mammary glands of other mammals have remained a must-have accessory. Now it’s the movies’ turn.
According to Variety, the movie industry will soon get its own “Got Milk?”-style campaign in “We Love Movies,” the brainchild of online ticket retailer Fandango. The series of ads, set to appear on TV, radio, and digital platforms, will similarly feature famous people reminding you of the existence of movies, all in an effort to “ignite consumer excitement around moviegoing and drive theater attendance.” And what better way to create excitement than with a video of Larry King, offering a rare endorsement to a movie he likes?
Yes, King is just one of today’s hottest stars who’s been brought in to make moviegoing cool again, luring millennials away from their smartphones alongside the likes of Reba McEntire, Evander Holyfield, Darius Rucker, and Slash. They’ll all appear in Fandango’s new video series, reminiscing about the joys of seeing movies like The Sound Of Music, Finding Nemo, Rocky, The Naked Gun, and Purple Rain, and “rhapsodizing about the joys of a darkened theater” back when theaters were still dark and Purple Rain did not seem completely ludicrous.
Together with its other plan to give away a year’s worth of tickets to a select few sweepstakes winners, Fandango hopes to use these celebrity spots to reverse the trend of declining theater attendance that saw last year hit an all-time low. And all without resorting to cheap, superfluous measures, like reducing ticket prices or its own convenience fees.
As Variety notes, this is an “opportune time” to launch the campaign, given that 2015’s lineup of tentpoles like Avengers: Age Of Ultron, Jurassic World, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens are already expected to make this a record-breaking year for attendance. Like milk before it, now those movies can thank the generous efforts of celebrities for their success.