亚马逊纳粹形象广告引争议

反响极差的宣传举措对营销人员和杂志设计者来说是个很大的教训。不过它们也反映了电视产业激烈的眼球争夺战：在线流媒体企业和传统电视台都在寻找风险更高的节目创意，并更激进地推销这些节目。

 

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

Guardian 《卫报》

imagery 意象

distinctive 独特的

inbuilt 嵌入的

featured 精选的

guerrilla 游击队

 

阅读马上开始，建议您计算一下阅读整篇文章所用的时间，对照下方的参考值就可以评估出您的英文阅读水平。

Amazon's Nazi-style advertising gimmick backfires in New York（580words）

By Henry Mance in London and Shannon Bond in New York

 

It must have seemed like a good idea to somebody.

 

Amazon has come under fire after plastering Nazi-type imagery over a subway train in New York.

 

It was the second mis-step in the marketing for The Man in the High Castle,Amazon's big budget drama,which imagines the world if the Axis powers had won the second world war.

 

A fortnight ago,The Guardian newspaper in the UK had to pulp 300,000 of copies of its listings magazine,The Guide,after senior editors realised too late that a cover image about the show,headlined “The Reich Stuff”,could be offensive.

 

The badly received publicity moves are a lesson to marketers and magazine designers. But they also illustrate the intense battle for audience eyeballs in the television industry: with streaming companies and traditional broadcasters looking for riskier programming ideas and marketing them more aggressively.

 

“You have to do more,and be more distinctive,to stand out,” says Dan Brooke,marketing director at Channel 4.In the US,streaming service Hulu has pledged to boost spending by 70 per cent this year to promote its own original shows,such as The Mindy Project.

 

Amazon and Netflix,which are seeking to define their creative ambition,start at a disadvantage because they do not have traditional TV channels. By contrast,the BBC does little promotion for its programming in the UK,relying instead on cross-promotion from its various outlets,which include the country's most popular TV channel,radio station and news website.

 

“A good old,linear schedule” allows broadcasters to rely on a certain inbuilt audience,says Tim Westcott,an analyst at IHS. Unlike Netflix,Amazon at least has a retail website,where A Man in the High Castle has been extensively featured,he adds.

 

Even those companies with existing TV channels are having to work harder to establish their reputation for drama. UK pay-TV broadcaster Sky promoted Fortitude,a £25m Arctic thriller that was its most expensive drama to date,by placing an 8ft model of a polar bear at various London landmarks.

 

Channel 4's Humans,a drama about artificial intelligence,was preceded by an extended hoax,including an eBay page and a store in Regent Street,London,that both purported to sell robots.

 

“Fifteen years ago people would just turn up[to watch shows],” says Mr Brooke. “Now you have to go out and reach them more.”

 

But the shift to more innovative marketing,which cannot be turned off like a TV or YouTube advert,requires a particular duty of care,says Tim Duffy,UK chair of M & C Saatchi,the advertising agency. “There was a duty on[Amazon]to make clear the premise” of the Nazi imagery.

 

Poor marketing decisions are not unique to the streaming era. In 2007,a would-be guerrilla advertising campaign for a movie based on Cartoon Network's animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force sparked a terror scare in Boston. LED panels bearing the likeness of two characters were mistakenly identified as bombs,leading to a citywide security response.

 

The head of Cartoon Network resigned over the incident,and Turner,the channel's parent company,agreed to pay the Boston police and the US Department of Homeland Security $2m to pay for the costs of the incident.

 

Amazon is removing its campaign from the New York subway,but the publicity is unlikely to have been entirely unwelcome. Next year it launches Jeremy Clarkson's new motoring show; the boundaries of taste may soon be pushed again.

 

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

 

1.Which one was pulped a fortnight ago because of the offensive headline?

A.The Guardian

B.The Guide

C.Netflix

D.Hulu

[1] 答案

 

2.Who has pledged to boost spending by 70 per cent this year to promote its own original shows?

A.Netflix

B.Netflix

C.Hulu

D.Channel 4

[2] 答案

 

3.What is the weakness of Amazon,comparing with the BBC?

A.lack of traditional TV channels

B.so few viewers

C.over reliance on cross-promotion

D.lack of originality

[3] 答案

 

4.Which one is the Sky's most expensive drama to date?

A.The Mindy Project

B.Humans

C.Fortitude

D.The Reich Stuff

[4] 答案

 

[1]答案：B.The Guide
解释：两周前，《卫报》(Guardian)曾被迫将30万份旗下娱乐指南杂志《the Guide》回收。

[2]答案：C.Hulu
解释：在美国，流媒体服务网站Hulu已承诺要在今年增加70%的开支，用于推销《明迪烦事多》(The Mindy Project)等原创剧集。

[3]答案：A.lack of traditional TV channels
解释：亚马逊和Netflix都试图勾勒其在创意上的宏伟蓝图，两者的劣势都在于它们没有传统电视传播渠道。

[4]答案：C.Fortitude
解释：《雪镇疑杀》是一部2500万英镑制作的讲述北极圈内故事的惊悚电视剧，是该台迄今投资最大的电视剧。