Wilco Shows The Entertainment Industry How To Respond To A Leak

from the see?-not-so-hard... dept

Last month, when the work print of the movie Wolverine leaked online, the studio 20th Century Fox went ballistic, sending out all sorts of threats and getting the FBI involved. We had suggested that if they had taken a different approach, they could have turned the leak into something beneficial. Our suggestion was to make the following statement:

Hey Wolverine fans! We know that you're all looking forward to the release of the movie next month. We're excited too! By now you may have heard that an early totally unfinished version has been leaked online. It's missing a whole bunch of stuff -- including some amazing special effects -- and honestly, this version isn't a finished product at all. We think you'll get a much better overall experience by waiting for the full finished product, but we certainly understand that some of you just can't wait (trust us, we feel the same way!). If that's the case, please, feel free to check it out, but please remember that this isn't even close to the final version. If anything, think of this as a "behind-the-scenes" peek of just what a movie looks like before all the real "movie magic" gets put in there. If you do check it out, we hope you'll join us May 1st to check out the finalized version as well on the big screen the way we intended for you to see this awesome movie. It's just a month away!

And, of course, we had people from the movie industry tell us we were crazy (some funny emails from the movie studios, actually), and that such a plan would never work, and how could they not call in the FBI and threaten legal action. Apparently, my suggestion was the dumbest thing ever.

And... yet... when others actually do something like that, it appears to be working. Reader mikez points us to the news that the band Wilco discovered that its upcoming album has been leaked online, so they put up their own streaming version of the album for all to listen to and released the following statement:

"Well we made it nearly a month with copies of Wilco the album floating around out there before it leaked. Pretty impressive restraint in this day and age. But the inevitable happened last night. Since we know you're curious and probably have better things to do than scour the internet for a download though we do understand the attraction of the illicit we ve posted a stream of the full album...Feel free to refer to it as wilco the stream if you must."

See? Turns out it's not so difficult. And, while 20th Century Fox was getting slammed left and right for its actions, Twitter this morning is abuzz with people talking about how awesome the new Wilco album is and how excited they are that it's coming out.

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In An Alternate Universe, How 20th Century Fox Could Have Responded To Wolverine Leak

from the just-calm-down... dept

A bunch of folks have been sending in the story of how an early version of the movie Wolverine has leaked online, well before the movie goes to theaters. The NY Times even describes this as unprecedented and eats up the movie industry's claim that this is some huge problem. Not surprisingly, the NY Times article was written by the same reporter who recently wrote an article basically repeating unproven movie studio claims that piracy was damaging its business -- a point disproved weeks later in the same NY Times (by a different reporter) noting that the movie business is seeing a huge surge in attendance.

As has been pointed out over and over again, there's very little evidence that movie "piracy" cannibalizes film attendance. That's why the most "pirated" films are also the biggest box office hits. It's not too hard to figure out why: people go out to the movies for the social experience, not just for the content. And putting in place smarter business models can help drive more people to the actual theaters, even if they saw the content online first.

But, of course, that's not how the industry sees it, and 20th Century Fox has wasted no time in going after anyone sharing the film and trying to hunt down who leaked it. That is, of course, the company's right. But, it does seem that its resources might be better spent focusing on giving people a real reason to go see the film in the theaters.

If anything, it seems the real fear is that the version that's been released isn't very good -- and that's what will keep people away from seeing the film in the theater. That "early word of mouth" that studios have been blaming for bad box office turnout. And, certainly, you can understand why it would be upsetting to the studio to have an unfinished version out there (especially if it's missing many of the sound effects and special effects). But, even so, instead of going all legal and threatening, the studio could have responded in a way that built anticipation to get people to actually go see the movie.

Why not be straightforward about it, saying, something along the lines of:

Hey Wolverine fans! We know that you're all looking forward to the release of the movie next month. We're excited too! By now you may have heard that an early totally unfinished version has been leaked online. It's missing a whole bunch of stuff -- including some amazing special effects -- and honestly, this version isn't a finished product at all. We think you'll get a much better overall experience by waiting for the full finished product, but we certainly understand that some of you just can't wait (trust us, we feel the same way!). If that's the case, please, feel free to check it out, but please remember that this isn't even close to the final version. If anything, think of this as a "behind-the-scenes" peek of just what a movie looks like before all the real "movie magic" gets put in there. If you do check it out, we hope you'll join us May 1st to check out the finalized version as well on the big screen the way we intended for you to see this awesome movie. It's just a month away!

Sure, I just made that up on the spot -- but if Fox had released a statement like that, just think of the reaction among the folks who this unauthorized version would likely reach. Rather than being treated like criminals, they'd be treated like fans -- and with a bit of honesty. Personally, it would make me a lot more likely to want to go (pay and) see the movie when it came out. Would it really have been that difficult to do that? It certainly would be a lot cheaper and more effective than "spending the day demanding that copies of the film be removed from the largely anonymous swath of Web sites that swap movie files" as the NY Times reported folks at Fox Studios did.

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Cooking Mama Shows How To Respond To Critical Parody

from the thanks-for-the-promotion! dept

We've seen plenty of organizations react poorly and sue when someone creates a parody of what they do. Parody is protected under fair use rules, but that doesn't always stop lawsuits. And, some were apparently wondering if Cooking Mama, a popular video game for Nintendo platforms would get offended and sue over a critical video from PETA. Cooking Mama is apparently a game where you simulate preparing a meal. The PETA version used artwork from the original game and created Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals, with the rather overt position. Some had thought that the company behind the game, Majesco, might sue. But, Jeff Leyser points out, the company took the high road, responding to the parody game and essentially said "thanks for the free publicity," while noting that the game has options for vegetarian meals.

"Food lover and culinary cutie Cooking Mama is a virtual chef who believes that good home cooked food, properly prepared from the best ingredients, can bring people together around the table and make the world a happier place. That's why Mama is taking a stand with oven mitts raised high against the latest PETA objection targeting her freshly released videogame, Cooking Mama World Kitchen, that shipped this week for Wii from Majesco Entertainment Company. Mama wants people to know that World Kitchen includes 51 recipes from around the world, ranging from vegetarian fare like miso soup and rice cakes to international delicacies like ginger pork and octopus dumplings."

See? It's not that difficult to respond without resorting to a lawsuit.

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How To Respond To Criticism: EA's Tiger Woods Walks On Water Ad

from the nice-shot dept

In an age where anyone can speak up, and anyone can criticize you, the first reaction of many folks is to hit back hard -- even trying to take down critical info. As we all know, that's exactly the wrong thing to do. But, it's still quite difficult to turn something that's negative into a positive quite as well as video game company EA just did. Mathew Ingram has the details, but basically, when last year's version of EA's Tiger Woods golfing game came out, some users made a video jokingly pointing out that a glitch in the game allows Tiger Woods to stand in the middle of a water trap and take a shot:

With this year's version coming out, EA actually took that video as inspiration for a new ad, "responding" to that video, by showing that it wasn't a "glitch" at all, but that Tiger really can walk on water and hit a golf ball: Now that's a good response to some criticism.

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