# Belgrade Philharmonic stunt - good or bad iea?



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra made a (kind of) "public stunt" as a part of marketing campaign. As video below shows, a few orchestra members went to certain part of Belgrade, which is (supposed to be) (in)famous for its caffes in which typical nouveau riche will try to find his typical trophy girlfriend (many would argue that it is hardly the case, but anyway, orchestra guys played on that card). Keep in mind that all of this is happening at the time when Guča Trumpet Festival takes place, so the proclaimed purpose of the stunt is to show that "there's more than one way to play a trumpet". After they finished playing and received applause, they showed a sign saying "Thank you for not attending [our concerts]". You can see a reaction or two to the sign in the video.

So, what so you think about this? Uncalled for? Did they make a good point or did they make elitist jerks of themselves?


----------



## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

My feeling is that if you paid good money to attend a concert, that's what you should get.

*I have no problem with anybody protesting peacefully outside a concert venue for whatever reason.*

*http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14756736*

_I don't really intend to post anything more on this subject._


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Fsharpmajor said:


> My feeling is that if you paid good money to attend a concert, that's what you should get.
> 
> *I have no problem with anybody protesting peacefully outside a concert venue for whatever reason.*
> 
> ...


I'd say that wasn't the subject in the first place. Maybe I missed something here, but one of us surely did.


----------



## samurai (Apr 22, 2011)

Fsharpmajor said:


> My feeling is that if you paid good money to attend a concert, that's what you should get.
> 
> *I have no problem with anybody protesting peacefully outside a concert venue for whatever reason.*
> 
> ...


Why not


----------



## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

Good idea. If the people don't go to the music, bring the music to the people.


----------



## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

I think that I did indeed miss the point, and I apologize for my presumption.


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Fsharpmajor said:


> I think that I did indeed miss the point, and I apologize for my presumption.


No problem, it happens. 


Philip said:


> Good idea. If the people don't go to the music, bring the music to the people.


But, isn't this kind of approach going to turn people against the classical music, instead towards it? They are not simply going out in the streets saying "hey, we also play some music, this is what we can do, come check us out sometime", they are actually rubbing into people's faces the message "Thank you for not attending [our concerts]" - at the same time as ever popular "trumpet festival" is taking place (festival which is admittedly mostly bacchanalia dominated by low taste and cacophony). Basically, they are saying - good thing you're not attending anyway, go to that crappy "festival" of yours.

The same orchestra already had some quite good marketing campaigns - in the following one they explained their attitude of not being interested in "selling" anything but the music (in a period in which you would get pop-music CD with every bag of laundry detergent you bought and everyone organized some kind of lottery):





I liked that one, but this one is too elitist, seems to me they are rubbing into people's faces that they are no good for other kind of music anyway.


----------



## Philip (Mar 22, 2011)

I fail to see the "elitism" in this situation... The intended effect of this stunt was probably something like: _See, you do enjoy our music - Now why don't you attend any of our concerts?_ (dry humour being their medium of choice it seams). However, it probably came off as an act of desperation, which puts the target audience in a position of superiority with regards to their craft.


----------



## regressivetransphobe (May 16, 2011)

> But, isn't this kind of approach going to turn people against the classical music, instead towards it?


Hmm. The people who don't care about classical music will probably never care about classical music, and if someone among these airheads eventually does, a harmless stunt isn't going to stop them. I don't really see anything wrong here, it was just clever advertising for something good.

Effective, I dunno.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

I'd say it was a very bad idea.
You don't entice people by offending them.


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Almaviva said:


> I'd say it was a very bad idea.
> You don't entice people by offending them.


Thank God - for a while I thought I might be the only one to see the offensive part of it, but I think the part of explanation is that there is this notion that "there is no such thing as bad publicity". While it certainly applies to pop culture celebrities, I'd like to think it is not the same for everyone else.


----------



## Almaviva (Aug 13, 2010)

graaf said:


> Thank God - for a while I thought I might be the only one to see the offensive part of it, but I think the part of explanation is that there is this notion that "there is no such thing as bad publicity". While it certainly applies to pop culture celebrities, I'd like to think it is not the same for everyone else.


 I don't entirely agree with the saying. It's generally true when you want to increase the visibility of a product or person, but it can also backfire. For example, the infamous iPhone campaign that was sarcastically and contemptuously saying "if you don't have an iPhone, well... you don't have an iPhone" was one such example, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was exactly the reason for it to be short-lived. The ad implied that the people who don't own iPhones are not hip, and are primitive morons. Well the add pissed me off. I have another smartphone and I'm pleased with it. I don't consider myself to be a primitive moron just because I don't own an iPhone. See, those who *already* own an iPhone may relate to the message, but Apple doesn't need to advertise to them, it would be preaching to the choir. The target audience for the add is made of people who have other brands of smartphone and may be considering a switch to the iPhone. By offending their target audience, Apple caused the reaction "f... them, I'll stick with my smartphone, I don't need a stupid iPhone." Most likely after the campaign sales dropped, and then Apple pulled back and cancelled the campaign. I think the Belgrade Philharmonic is making the same mistake.


----------



## graaf (Dec 12, 2009)

Almaviva said:


> I don't entirely agree with the saying. It's generally true when you want to increase the visibility of a product or person, but it can also backfire. For example, the infamous iPhone campaign that was sarcastically and contemptuously saying "if you don't have an iPhone, well... you don't have an iPhone" was one such example, and I wouldn't be surprised if this was exactly the reason for it to be short-lived. The ad implied that the people who don't own iPhones are not hip, and are primitive morons. Well the add pissed me off. I have another smartphone and I'm pleased with it. I don't consider myself to be a primitive moron just because I don't own an iPhone. See, those who *already* own an iPhone may relate to the message, but Apple doesn't need to advertise to them, it would be preaching to the choir. The target audience for the add is made of people who have other brands of smartphone and may be considering a switch to the iPhone. By offending their target audience, Apple caused the reaction "f... them, I'll stick with my smartphone, I don't need a stupid iPhone." Most likely after the campaign sales dropped, and then Apple pulled back and cancelled the campaign. I think the Belgrade Philharmonic is making the same mistake.


I now remember that there was a thread about iPhone add on the forum, but I forgot about it. Anyway, that's a very good comparison.


----------



## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Instead of "Thank you for not coming to our concerts" they should have put up a sign saying, "That wasn't for free."

:tiphat:


----------

