Wednesday, September 3, 2008

pass the can

another fleeting memory of days gone by popped into my head the other day. not sure why i was thinking of it, but i had this great memory of the summer theater fundraising campaign for the will rogers institute.

there was a time, probably when i was about 13 or 14, that i would ride my bike to the mall with a friend or two and see a movie almost weekly during the summer. the multiplex at the mall participated in the fundraising campaign, which involved a trailer starring usually one or two a-list celebs of the day telling the story of will rogers and his eponymous institute. the trailer would end with the celeb shaking a coffee can emblazoned with the will rogers logo and announcing that ushers would now be passing the cans. house lights would come up again for a few minutes while people dug for change and passed the cans, then dimmed again once the collection was over so the movie could start.

apparently this is still done, as the website attests. while i don't go to the movies nearly as much anymore, it's been quite a while since i've seen the will rogers promo. anybody else remember these, or seen one in the past 10 years?

3 comments:

N said...

I remember these, absolutely. But since I haven't set foot in a movie theater in years, I also haven't actually seen it in decades, I think.

CEK said...

They still run them before the movies. Usually in the summer time, as the tagline for the past couple of years has been, "Enjoy your summer at the movies."

The current spokes celeb is Jeremy Piven.

Anonymous said...

Often times, a commercial for the Will Rogers Institute will run before the movie informing you of the locations within the theatre you can donate if you'd like.

The commercials are actually pretty great. No one's seen the one where the construction workers working on a building next door to a children's hospital spray-paint the children's names along the beams?