Topic: Campaign to support BBM

[*Froggy*]

Dear Members,

You may be aware that there is an ongoing ad campaign to support BBM and news coverage. This campaign was initiated by the other forum which urges its members to donate money for ad placements.

ennisjack.com has contacted the other forum for a joint effort and asked to be acknowledged in the ad. However, the request of acknowledgement of ennisjack.com members was declined. Also, there is no accountability of donation. Although we support the idea and wish its success, in order to protect the interests of our members and this forum, we have decided not to participate and to recommend our members to donate. Please do not post any direct link to donation. Thank you for your help and support.

We understand that many of you want to support BBM in every possible ways. There are many effective ways to show your supports. Currently, we are running Thank You Postcard, as well as Riverton Postcard and
Letter to the Oscar. Please join us.

[chameau]

Thank you sister!   

[frenchcda]

March 9, 2006
For Immediate Release
Contact: John Wells at 917-715-9263 or Linda Andrews at 210-885-4882


Hollywood, California-In an unprecedented show of support for Brokeback Mountain, a website discussion board has spearheaded a campaign to collect donations from around the world to place ads in trade and national publications in support of the movie. In the first 48 hours, the group raised nearly $16,000 from over 400 contributors, and a team of volunteers designed a full page color ad to run in the March 10 Daily Variety.
 
The ad campaign was started by members at the Ultimate Brokeback Forum as a positive way to deal with their emotions surrounding Brokeback Mountain’s loss for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Instead of responding in anger, members wanted to find a way to thank the cast and crew of the film and to find a way to highlight Brokeback Mountain’s unprecedented string of Best Picture wins.
 
The disparate group quickly decided to start an ad campaign, and soon word spread to other sites, and donations started to pour in from around the world. “I think most fans of the film were stunned by the Best Picture surprise, which raised the question of how and why the Academy could have been so out of sync with virtually every other organization that awarded Best Picture honors," site organizer Dave Cullen said in explaining why so many diverse people worldwide were donating to the campaign.

According to industry watchers, no movie has generated this sort of fan response after a loss for Best Picture. Fans are happy their support for Brokeback Mountain is becoming part of industry lore. They hope that others looking for a way to honor Brokeback Mountain as the Best Picture of 2005 will contribute to the campaign, so more ads can run to help raise awareness that the film garnered nearly every Best Picture award bestowed for 2005. “Only one major organization did not name Brokeback Mountain as Best Picture,” says campaign chair Peter Greyson.
 
In part, this one snub for Best Picture was why those involved with the campaign wanted to send a clear message that Brokeback Mountain was embraced by people around the world as well as highlight their gratitude for the film and remind people of the spirit of the film as expressed by Ang Lee: “[Jack and Ennis] taught all of us who made Brokeback Mountain so much about not just all the gay men and women whose love is denied by society, but just as important, the greatness of love itself.”
 
The organization spearheading the ad campaign is the Ultimate Brokeback Forum, hosted at davecullen.com/forum. The forum has 2,500 members and in only three months of operation is averaging 12,000 unique visitors each day and over 200,000 page views.

--- (end of press release) ---

[tpe]

I am happy to note that the promoters of this ad campaign have now been featured in the March 13 edition of the New York Times.

Although this forum did not participate officially in this ad campaign, it should be noted that all of us in this forum wish all true lovers of BBM success in their heartfelt undertakings.

My sincere and humble thanks...

[ethan]

I am happy to note that the promoters of this ad campaign have now been featured in the March 13 edition of the New York Times.

Although this forum did not participate officially in this ad campaign, it should be noted that all of us in this forum wish all true lovers of BBM success in their heartfelt undertakings.

My sincere and humble thanks...

Ditto. Thanks, tpe. Below is the article from NYT.

----------------------------------------------------

STUART ELLIOTT
Published: March 13, 2006

Fans of the film "L.A. Confidential" did not take out advertisements in entertainment publications after it lost the best picture Academy Award to "Titanic." It did not happen when "Goodfellas" lost to "Dances With Wolves" or even when "Citizen Kane" lost to "How Green Was My Valley."

But after "Brokeback Mountain" lost the best picture Oscar to "Crash," more than 800 fans — participants in an online discussion group known as the Ultimate Brokeback Forum — chipped in more than $24,000 to buy a full-page ad in Daily Variety. The ad, which ran Friday, thanked the makers of the movie "for transforming countless lives through the most honored film of the year."

"I felt we had to do something," said Dave Cullen, a journalist in Denver who bought the ad after setting up several Brokeback sites, at addresses including brokeback.davecullen.com. "People were distraught, upset, angry; they couldn't believe it."

A poster who goes by Texas Girl suggested buying the ad, he said, and after some discussion that they protest the "Crash" victory, the forum participants decided to run "a positive ad."

Charles C. Koones, president and publisher of Daily Variety and Variety, owned by Reed Elsevier, said, " 'Brokeback' really touched a chord with certain audiences. There are those in Hollywood who feel it was robbed." Although his publications have run fan group ads in the past, they typically urged networks not to cancel favorite TV series.

Mr. Cullen said that the Daily Variety ad cost $15,435, adding that contributors were discussing what to do with the leftover money.

Mr. Koones offered this advice: "You need another ad.

[Toadily]

There is a short story about it in the latest NEwsweek!  I am so surprised to see it, I will cut and paste it later, it's in the very latest one I JUST got in the mail.  Cullen is quoted and the ad is pictured.