MoviePass is run by dogs now, apparently

MoviePass, the endless subscription service to movies, has had a dark year. The company, which has built a base of more than 3 million subscribers with a contract allowing users to watch a movie a day in theaters for less than $ 10 a month, has lost money to a prodigious rhythm. During 2018, he regularly redeveloped his basic subscription, forced his annual subscribers to sign up for a monthly subscription and collapsed down the stock price after repeated reports that he was running out of ############################################################################### 39; money.

More recently, parent company Helios and Matheson – who are facing a shareholder class action suit and fraud investigation – have turned MoviePass into a separate company, ostensibly to dissociate themselves from toxic responses to a service. more and more limited. could provide.

But apparently, society has a solution: cute dogs.

The last e-mail to subscribers is a bewildering attempt to disarm and appease them with a puppy. The image above has been sent to users with the following message:

Frame! I'm Chloe, Director of MoviePass Marketing. I would like to explain why, from time to time, you may have had a difficult experience with us, but it turns out that I am a dog and that I can not speak. What I do know is that I see these humans working hard to improve MoviePass better and better for you as fast as possible. They are very grateful to you for your support and support while they are working on it. We listen We learn. We change.

Although this is far from being the first time that a company is trying to attract the attention of its customers bothered by a softer message, or the first time that a company has opted for the attachment of dogs to the promotion of a product (this is often imitated in 1973). National Lampoon cover the famous standard for this form of marketing), there is something particularly artificial and condescending about this particular attempt at company deflection.

In the most literal sense of the term, this implies that MoviePass's irregular service, whose remaining subscribers do not really go to the cinema, may be due to the fact that some of its top executives … are dogs. And dogs can be cute, but historically, they have not demonstrated a particular talent for managing companies. (Although most companies do not even have a marketing department, this may not be a critical subdivision for the mission, and Chloe suggests that the day-to-day functions of the company are in human hands. )

But more importantly, the unhealthy and hypocritical tone of e-mail, as well as its vague assurances about the positive changes ahead, are a reminder of society's abuse of disrespect for its users: to invent absurd figures for overestimate its value for cinemas; close access to specific theaters and films without warning to manipulate the market; collect data on its users and then state that it was never intended to use this information; charge users even after their cancellation; and unpopular hand-made decisions in corporate emails blaming the failure of applications and technology issues.

MoviePass has struggled all year long and this somewhat bizarre attempt to make a pretty palliative gives an unusual feeling of lassitude and distraction. Bad dog, Chloe. Bad dog.