Transparency, Proof, and Signaling Theory

By Jeff Sexton, Wizard of Ads Partner

Before any­thing else, watch this not-so-safe-for-work video (lots of cussing):

Now, here’s what the Alamo Draft­house has to say about the inci­dent:

We do not tol­er­ate peo­ple that talk or text in the the­ater. In fact, before every film, we have sev­eral warn­ings on screen to pre­vent such hap­pen­ings. Occa­sion­ally, some­one doesn’t fol­low the rules, and we do, in fact, kick their asses out of our the­ater. This video is an actual voice­mail from a woman that was kicked out of one of our Austin the­aters. Thanks, anony­mous woman, for being awesome.

Just one ques­tion: after watch­ing that video, do you have any doubt that the Alamo Draft­house is seri­ous about pro­tect­ing the customer’s movie-going experience?

Of course not. Why? Because you know that they not only are will­ing to kick peo­ple out for dis­tract­ing vio­la­tions, but that they’ve done it in the past and are not at all afraid to take some heat for it. This video serves as a mas­ter­ful dis­play of trans­parency in adver­tis­ing, a per­fect form of proof, and a strong sig­nal of intent to any prospec­tive customer.

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