H&M Romeo & Juliet advert

Commercials before movies are evil enough. See an earlier rant by Profundo. But in the last week or two a new horror has come to our screens.

The H&M fashion chain are running a 10 minute advert - yes, a whole 10 minutes!!! - which is based on the story Romeo and Juliet. Has anyone else had the misfortune to be assaulted by this yet? Did you also hate it as passionately as I did?



Not only does it make you cringe from start to finish - the story is also just plain wrong. Romeo committed suicide in the original play by Willy Shakes. In this interpretation he is killed. There have also been complaints that it glamorises gun culture.

Having to endure 25 minutes of pre-movie diversions, always ending with Shaggy singing "Like ice in the sunshine", is bad enough. But this really takes the biscuit. I did wonder whether H&M deliberately made this so painful for the precise reason of getting people to talk about it - just like I'm doing now. But Iceberg Slim assures me that advertisers don't work like this.

Anyway, if you really must see what I'm talking about, the movie short is available online: (turn on your sound)

• Streamed Quicktime version
• Streamed RealPlayer version

You can also view movie extras and background info by going to www.hm.com and navigating to "Inspiration / H&M Denim".

This is the vilest piece of garbage I have had the misfortune to have to sit through TWICE! I'm considering boycotting the Cinema altogether.

Can you please settle an argument between my friend and I. Does she actually get shot because she pulls out her cell phone or is that just a random flash of light?

It was truly horrible! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, it was so bad.

This has been running quite a while, I saw this at Matheser about 6 weeks ago. Very strange !

Also recently saw this on German TV.

One more reason that u can go half an hour late to the movies here in München (specially to the Museum Lichtspeile)...They should have versions of shows with and without this crap..the one with it should cost way less for pain of enduring it

I saw this the other night. HORRIBLE. A complete embarrassment to anyone who's set foot in an H&M store. The most horrid thing ever committed to celluloid. The writers, actors, director, cameramen, editors, etc. should pray forgiveness for the eternal shame they have bestowed upon their ancestors.

Seppuku is their only means of atonement.

Yep, saw it the other week when I was drunk. I wondered what the hell was going on and when the H&M logo popped up at the the few people in the theatre including myself voiced their unsatisfaction of being forced to watch it.

could you guys be a little bit more direct maybe.

are you saying it isn't very good

I find it hard to believe that advertisers could put something this atrocious together simply to get people to talk about it. Adverts are very rarely subtle and this one just takes itself too seriously for it to be anything but a bad idea poorly executed.

I also don't credit a H&M with much creativity. They rip off other designers to produce cheap fashions and now they've ripped of Baz Luhrman's Romeo & Juliet for bad advertising.

On the other hand, I am now thinking about a visit to H&M tomorrow...

What bothers me most is that cinemas have continued to up ticket prices despite their exploitation of a new revenue stream (their captive audiences as targets for advertising).

I saw this on Monday too. I'm familar with the short TV version which was shown after the loooong version. It was just painful to watch it. People were groaning and clapping when it was over in Cinema.

Yeah, I wanted to puke myself.

And yes, she points the gun so they will shoot her dead!

I coulda sworn it was her cell phone that she pointed

I thought it was a cell phone (hard to tell with my hands over my face though).

well not a bad strategy though!!

Bore the viewers soo much / make them feel so disgusted / make people talk about it in Toytown soo much to actually start a thread, that

ONE would never forget H & M!... the brand (well, one would probably never buy any H & M goods either!)

Yes, you are right, it was a cell phone, but she pretended it was a gun <natch>.

She picks the cell phone out of her dead boyfriend's hand, stares at it, and points it at a police man who then shoots her.

I find the idea of having adverts in the cinema completely wrong and so much so that I go to the cinema very seldom now. It is obvious why commercial TV channels need adverts but in the cinema you are paying money, directly, to see the film. And I'm not the only one who's pissed off. Good idea for a business: advert free cinema.

Monopol - Feilitzschstraße 7, Schwabing
Inselkinos - Museumsinsel 1, Altstadt

Both have commercial-free showings. Tickets cost about €0.50 more than at normal cinemas.

I thought it was a joke. A horrible, horrible joke. The crying scene in the end...I wanted to tear out my ears.

I have to admit though, after seeing the Kangaroos shoe commercial, I am more accepting of the pre-movie commercials, although the H&M sucks so bad.

Kangaroos, super shoes.

A interesting commentary on this:


etc...

I sorta agree. I have no problem with media violence to tell a decent story (e.g. The Sopranos) but this thing was just a pile of opportunistic garbage out to sell clothes (on top of being one of the most artistically awful things I've ever seen).

You are forgetting one thing. It does not matter what you point at NYC cops they shoot you regardless. I had a buddy gunned down outside of Yankee Stadium while waving around a hot dog, poor bastard!

At least this was shorter then that Leonardo DeCaprio version!

According to that site they had it pulled in Canada.

Lucky Canadians.

what's that DW?

saw this too while waiting to watch "Wächter der Nacht". Wrong public IMHO, plus having already waited 30 minutes, I was f*cking angry. People were actually booing. Remember the snippets they were showing weeks before this? What were they trying to sell? I like Mary J. Blige & the song is heart-wrenching, but the crying-over-the-dead-body thing made my skin crawl. It was so uncomfortable to watch. Yeah, people clapped too when it was over.

Personally, I liked West Side Story better.

Self disembowelment.

Quite frankly, I wish they would have had this commercial on when I was taken to see Lord of the blinking Rings. I only wanted to go for the Star Wars trailer, but my stupid woman fancied having a piss before sitting in the cineman for 8 hours, or however long that stupid hariy feet small people fiml was. Long story short, I missed the Star Wars advert because of my bird's bladder requirements, and so would have welcomed a 10 minute commerical. Only before the Star Wars one though.

It doesn't say much for their clothing when their advert lasts longer than their jeans...

What's classics can be plagiarised in the name of commercialism next?

How about an advert for Ikea based on the bible? Joseph was a woodworker, so there's already a link...

Worst thing i've seen in a while...

And yes she does bull out a handy and point it at the Cop, who shoots her.

You know what this tells me?

It's been a long time since I've seen a movie in a theatre.

The new adverts are there to repleace the Cigerette commericals, which were recently banned at many events including movies..

What a mess...blood spattered handy...I wana to kill myself...what is the message of the ad?
What does H&M stand for...Hit & Miss...

I had the misfortune to see it last weekend and I too was embarassed to have to actually sit there and watch that shit, and was also embarrassed for the actors/singers who performed in it.

But onto something else that I was actually going to make a thread about anyway:

Yes - wow. I've gotten used to seeing uncovered porn magazines all over the place, and soft-core sex on public TV, but i was NOT prepared for that commercial. I have, ummmm, some friends who... ummm, would like to see it after I told them about it. Seriously though - I did gave a synopsis on another US message board I frequent and they all wanted links. I've googled, looked on eDonkey, BitTorrent, iFilm, AdCritic all that, and found nothing. Kangaroos Shoes doesn't even appear to have an online presence at all. So, does anyone know where to get ahold of a video of that commercial?

Oh yeah - it took me a while to realize the significance of the vibrator in the shoe. I forgot that the selling point of Kangaroos (or at least when we all wore them back in the 80s) was there was a little zippered pocket on the side. So I think that's the point - that you can carry shit in your shoes, you know, like sexual apparatus and such.

I have a pair of Kangaroos and the pocket in them is too small for anything bigger than maybe one E-tab. No money, no condom and certainly no vibrator would fit in there.

Just watched it for the 16th time and everytime it brought tears in my eyes. One of the most moving pieces of filmmaking ever.

Great acting
Great music
Great choreography
Great photography
and great editing.

Love that rose tattoo bit. Classic.

A++++

^ you talking about the Kangaroos commercial? I didn't see any rose tattoo!

a lot of you people are seriously fucking OUT OF TOUCH with the younger generation! Particularly with H&M customers. By the way, H&M stands for hasi & mausi but I guess you've got your pseudo-new lad shaved heads stuffed too far down a beer glass to know that.

@chipbags
well after seeing that pile of shit before a the wonderful "ladies in lavender" tonight i`m ecstatic that im out of touch with the younger generation. When you have judi dench, maggie smith et al demosnstrating beautiful understated acting contrasted with that the visual and aural assault of plastic people and sacharin music, i thank god that i was born before 1980.

haven't read this thread, just would say this is worst piece of crap film, music, and advertisement that i have ever seen ever. period. i wasted fcuking minutes of my life on that in the movies, when i had no choice but to sit through it. this "movie" has made me lose ALL respect for H&M strategy and creatives. its actually pissed me off enough not to shop H&M awhile. and no i'm not drunk.

That ad is an abomination, and yes, I have specifically avoided H&M since then. What the hell is their point? Wear our clothes and you too can be gunned down in the street? Gah. It never really occurred to me to mind ads before movies, but I sure as hell mind this. Wish the cop had shot her before she'd started singing.

@alala
Actually it's more along the lines, If you buy/wear our clothes you will look better laying on the ground when you get gunned down in the streets..

Unfortunately, they closed down about two weeks ago.
Prospects of a reopening are unclear, as far as I know.

What? H & M stands for Hennes and Mauritz, you'll be telling us next it's a German company!

Gosh, opinions sway so easily these days...

I kind of thought it was more like West Side Story. I didn't get the Romeo and Juliet thing. But wow...what wailing...what a horrible sound. I was chatting away when it started and then all of a sudden I was like 'What the hell IS that?' If they were going for an attention-grabber, they certainly got that part right.

Blimeygirl, West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet.

I LOVE H&M but this ad really sucks ass. To think they droped Kate Moss because of the whole drug thing and they still run this ad really makes me question their common sense.

That I did not know. I see a small comparison between the two but not that much. Interesting. Must think about that a bit more now...

@Showem
that's because my emotions run deeper than a medium-sized pepsi, which is what I meant by nauseating, of course. I am sure you have wanted to sick up from pure emotional overwroughtness in a film sometime, perhaps 'the spy who came in from the cold'.

@allershausen: time to get out more. It's called hasi & mausi becasue people who shop there write notes like this to each other:

"Ich bin Mausi und mein Schatz ist mein Hasi; mein Kloppfer, mein süßes Schlappohr Hasi mein mümmelmann mein schnüffler !! Hasi ich hab Dich gaaaaaaaanz doll lieb !! BUSSI"

female h&m customers also wear their underwear on the outside and sleep with their handys under their pillows.

I have to admit one of my favourite cinema pass times is playing "name that commercial". Cinema adverts are often so random that I'm wrong about 95% of the time.

I lost a bag of gummi worms to Squeaky, as I had pegged the H&M commercial as an ad avert for throat lozenges.