Jackass: The Demo
This seems to be the age of bad
taste. From Jackass: The Movie to the musical Urinetown, we're inundated
with the tawdry, the salacious, and the sleazy. You have to really work at it if
you want to stand out as having spectacularly poor taste.
But the folks who distribute Nirotek's electronics in
Canada managed to put my jaw on the floor and keep it there with the demo they ran at
Montreal's Le Festival du Son et Image the last weekend in March.
This was astonishing for several reasons. First, I love
going to the Montreal celebration of hi-fi and A/V precisely because it is always so
decorous. The attendees and exhibitors alike are gracious, considerate, and interesting. I
mean my adopted hometown no disrespect, but I love Montreal because it offers such a
contrast to New York's effortless abrasiveness.
And I have followed Niro Nakamichi's career from afar for
many, many years. I have never met the man, but I can't imagine him causing anyone
discomfort or embarrassment. His products have brought me countless hours of musical
pleasure -- and that is how I'm sure he would wish to be known.
Interestingly enough, the product on display in
Montreal was fascinating. Dubbed the Niro Two6.1, it consists of a 6.1-channel A/V
receiver; a single front speaker that houses the left, center, and right channels; a near
mirror-image rear speaker containing the surround left, back, and right channels; and a
self-powered 150W subwoofer. Yes, it's a home-theater-in-a-box (HTIB) and it's a pretty
impressive-sounding one -- and the whole shebang costs only $1999.99 USD.
It was an interesting approach to home theater. It was
affordable. It made impressive noises. So, what was the problem?
It was the demo material: Pearl Harbor. And not just
the film, but specifically the scene that portrayed the sneak attack on the naval base and
the destruction of the USS Arizona. Talk about peeing in the punchbowl!
I wish to point something out here: The representatives who
presented the demo and (I assume) chose the demo material were not Asian. I'm sure no one
in Montreal representing Niro was Japanese. I'm also sure no one from Japan would have
been so blithely unaware of the statement the scene or film chosen was making.
And, yes, the geniuses running the demo were completely
unaware of the -- shall we say insensitivity -- of showing that particular film while
attempting to sell a product designed by a Japanese designer. I know because I asked the
man running the demo if he didn't think that the choice of film was a trifle unsavory and
his response was huh?
That's blank incomprehension for those not fluent in Idiot.
I might even grant that the reps had every right to choose Pearl
Harbor as a demo disc. It has gotten good reviews for its special effects and sound,
after all. But my objection to the film itself (and I do have them) isn't the point here.
My cavil, in case I need to spell it out, is with looping only the sneak-attack
sequence.
I'm sure Mr. Nakamichi would have been intensely
embarrassed and seriously distressed by this.
I sure was.
And I'm sure many others were, too.
I'll never be able to think about Niro's Two6.1 without
remembering my disgust. Wonder how many other show goers felt the same way?
Way to promote your product, guys!
The sad thing is that even without that little soupçon
of tastelessness, the Niro room was running a stupid, ineffective demo. It was just a more
extreme version of the marketing sabotage A/V dealers engage in every day.
The Niro demo consisted of one long sequence of planes
flying, of guns shooting, of bombs exploding. The set-up was essentially "it's small,
it's inexpensive -- now hear it for yourself."
Rrrrrrrrmmmmmmmrrrrmmmmmmm, bang-bang, BOOM!
Ho hum.
How many pointless demos like that have you suffered
through?
I've seen and heard thousands. How does all that
noise translate into something I want to put in my home? It's true that in context I want
the dramatic sound effects of films to sound, um, dramatic. But if all I want is loud,
I don't need a high-end home theater.
Even cheap HTIBs play loud.
Yet I've been in tons of stores that insist on
showing films at Dolby reference levels. I never listen that loud and I don't know
anyone who does. What good is a great-sounding system if you play it so loud that people
cover their ears?
Explosions, train wrecks, helicopters, and blastoffs. Is
that what you spend your free hours watching?
Me neither -- mostly.
The canniest piece of marketing I've seen in ages was the
NAD/PSB/InFocus demo at HE 2002. It used three film clips: a scene from Shakespeare In
Love that showed a picnic, an HDTV video of Jewel on The Tonight Show, and the
"Your Song" production number from Moulin Rouge. No loud noises, just the
sort of stuff people routinely watch -- and it was an excellent demonstration of what
makes home theater exciting. Even better, the presenter told us what we were going to
watch and what it could tell us about the components that were being used -- and then the
demo actually backed up every claim. It was controlled, it was tasteful, and it made me
leave wanting that system.
Think about it. A conversation, a TV show, and a movie
known for emotional overload. That's telling people what a system will do for them
in a convincing, real-world way. Of course, inventing an effective demo like that takes
thought -- and for far too many people in the A/V world, thought is hard work.
It's so much easier to insult your customers' intelligence
-- or taste -- and then complain about the down market.
Which does really beg the question: When you seem intent on
driving your potential customers away, just who, exactly, is the jackass?
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhometheater.com
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