It’s always worst when your heroes disappoint.
I’m usually 100% Team Met Opera (their Time Out New York ads in the listing section, for example, say, “…or you could go to The Met,” which I love). But when I was walking down 9th Avenue last night, this confused me:
Maybe it was the two margaritas I’d sucked down at El Centro, but “At any moment, a Great Moment” with a photo of Anna Netrebko in Manon just does not make sense. First of all, you can’t see her face; it’s all corseted torso. I guess that’s…sexy? Sure, let’s say “sexy”. Second, is that a great moment, musical or otherwise? Third, I take Meaningful Capitalization very seriously, and “Great Moment” doesn’t earn it/own it for me. Fourth, Anna Netrebko is opening the season with Anna Bolena: what happened to all the imagery that was around Lincoln Center and in the season brochure? I thought they were going for a whole The Tudors homage thing? Shouldn’t they be selling a bel canto opera that no one ever hears now, and worry about Manon in the spring?
Fourth, the Yankees totally used the exact same slogan in 1991, which I managed to remember in the dead of night despite the margaritas. Evidence provided on Twitter via @zwoolfe:
Doesn’t Rubenstein PR represent both The Met and the Yankees? And doesn’t that slogan only actually work for a sporting event, when an outcome isn’t known? I mean, we already know the great moments in Manon, don’t we?
Anyhow, when I posted the Met “great moment” ad on Twitter last night, some folks in LA pointed out that the new LA Philharmonic slogan doesn’t make a bit of sense, either. “Passion Forward” is apparently what they’re going with? Out West Arts has a post on the subject. From Out West Arts:
It seems to be a riff on “fashion forward”, but…why? One (self-described as “Black/Mexican and Gay”) commenter writes,
Brian dear it’s very simple: Dudamel is Latin, the mucho emotional Latins as we all know, are all about el passion, hence “passion forward!”
If our music director was African-American then it would be “rhythm forward” because we all know dems people got dat rhythm thing going.
If our music director was openly gay the line would be “fabulously forward” because gays are swishy and say terrible witty things.
… and so on and so forth.
With a mix of glee and despair, I direct you back to the best worst slogan in classical music: “Unexpect Yourself“.
Update, 9/11: A representative from Rubenstein PR has e mailed to point out that they do both The Met’s and the Yankees’s PR, not marketing. I knew that, but was trying to be Hilarious. It didn’t seem like the ideal moment to e mail back and ask for Derek Jeter’s phone number.
If I remember the 1991 Yankees season correctly, it in fact contained precisely zero Great Moments.
Amanda, I bet you that 98% of the target audience for that ad has no idea whatsoever that the photo is of Manon. Many of them may not even recognize the face as Anna Netrebko’s.
In fact, anyone who recognizes that the picture is from Manon is probably not in the target audience for the ad.
(Note that the legend “Anna Netrebko in Manon” is in tiny type at the very bottom of the image.)
The ad is on the side of a phone booth. (A phone booth?! Yes, they still exist, even though the phones in them often don’t work.) The target audience for the ad is what the British call “the punters” – regular New Yorkers walking down the street whom the Met wants to remind that a night at the opera can be exciting/cool/fun/whatever, and they should consider going.
The ad’s message is, basically, “hot soprano + cleavage + opera = Great Moments ࢺ you should think about getting Met tickets instead of Mets tickets sometime.”
(Now that I think of it, Netrebko appears to be handcuffed and in police custody, so the ad’s message could even be “hot soprano in bondage + cleavage [and so on] …”)
The subtext could even be, “Take your girlfriend to the Met for a date and you can enjoy the hot soprano’s cleavage while letting your girlfriend think you’re treating her to high culture.”
Anyone who wonders why the Met seems to be promoting Manon rather than Anna Bolena (in which the costumes are likely less revealing) is probably already well aware of the Met’s season and doesn’t need this reminder.
And yes, “Unexpect(orate) Yourself” was one of the great low points in modern classical music marketing.