No, Bieber Won't Show Up at Your Movie Theater, Despite What His Ad Says
Ads for Justin Bieber's movie Never Say Never misled fans into believing he would potentially show up at "hundreds" of movie theaters where the film was screened, according to an ad watchdog. The Children's Advertising Review Unit condemned the Paramount Pictures ad because Bieber only visited a handful of Los Angeles-area theaters back in February.
While Bieber's tween fans may adore his every move, it's a depressing reminder that grizzled, cynical adults are in charge of his marketing, and they don't often act with the same level of innocence as teenagers.
In the commercial, Bieber pays a surprise visit to a cinema full of screaming fans and says "This could happen in your theater!" That was never going to happen, CARU said, chastising the adults who, presumably, are in charge of Bieber's marketing.
The Jonas Brothers were similarly cited by CARU, a unit of the American Council of Better Business Bureaus, in 2009 for wrongly collecting private information from underage kids in 2009.
Bieber's recent marketing has revolved around the idea that he will randomly show up in the lives of his ordinary fans. In his commercial for his fragrance Someday, he magically appears in a girl's bedroom after she sprays herself with the scent.
Needless to say, the odds of Bieber actually paying a fan a surprise visit either in a movie theater or in a bedroom are vanishingly small. CARU was concerned that the Paramount ad was preying on young minds whose level of maturity, sophistication and experience are lower. (Plus, the laws of probability are, like, hard!)
Bieber did in fact surprise a movie theater back in February:
Paramount disagreed with the decision but said the commercial would never be used again. CARU ruled:
Bieber did in fact make visits to a few Los Angeles theaters but determined that these factors did not negate the underlying message communicated in the advertisement -- that Bieber would make live appearances at theaters in one or more of the hundreds of towns where the commercial aired.Related: