Thank you for hosting a screening of Speciesism: The Movie!
A successful screening requires a great deal of promotion, so we’ve compiled the most important resources and information for you here. These are our top recommendations based on our experience:
- The main thing to remember is that you must be absolutely incessant, especially on social media. People are busy and distracted, plus countless things are competing for their attention, so they generally need to see promotions a large number of times (say, 15-20 times) before they purchase a ticket. (This is how marketing works in general; think about how many times you see advertisements for the same thing.)
- Create a Facebook event for your screening.
- Use an image like this for your event page’s background photo, and an image like this for your event page’s icon.
- Use text like the following for the description (using paragraph breaks instead of bullet points):
- TICKETS: [***ENTER THE TICKET-PURCHASING PAGE IF YOU HAVE ONE; OTHERWISE, EXCLUDE THIS AND RELY ON FACEBOOK RSVP-ING***]
- Speciesism: The Movie is a groundbreaking documentary that takes viewers on a sometimes funny, sometimes frightening adventure across the country, exposing the biggest secrets about modern “factory farms,” and asking the biggest philosophical questions about the belief that our species is more important than the rest. You’ll never look at animals the same way again. Especially humans.
- “TREMENDOUSLY ENTERTAINING AND OFTEN LAUGH-OUT-LOUD FUNNY”
-The Huffington Post - “BRILLIANT AND COMPELLING”
-Michael Shermer, Scientific American and Skeptic - “IT’S DIFFICULT TO DO JUSTICE TO ALL OF THE GEMS THAT ARE IN THIS”
-Psychology Today - TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJYzia6KUbs
- TICKETS: [***ENTER THE TICKET-PURCHASING PAGE IF YOU HAVE ONE; OTHERWISE, EXCLUDE THIS AND RELY ON FACEBOOK RSVP-ING***]
- You must post very regularly (at least every few days for a month or so leading up to the screening, and every day for the last few weeks leading up to the screening), using images such as these (click on each for the full-size version), and text such as the following:
- Join us for the hilarious and life-changing documentary, Speciesism: The Movie, at [***LOCATION***] on [***DATE***] at [***TIME***]. [***IF SELLING TICKETS, ADD “Please buy your tickets right now, before they run out!” WITH A LINK TO BUY TICKETS***]
- Invite your friends and family for a night of fun at the one-time-only theatrical screening of the hilarious and life-changing documentary, Speciesism: The Movie, at [***LOCATION***] on [***DATE***] at [***TIME***]. [***IF SELLING TICKETS, ADD “Please buy your tickets right now, before they run out!” WITH A LINK TO BUY TICKETS***] You’ll never look at animals the same way again. Especially humans.
- You should also make numerous similar posts on all of the relevant Facebook pages and groups in your area, including those pertaining to animal rights/welfare, environmentalism, animals, vegetarianism/veganism, documentary, arts, politics/social issues, skeptics/freethinkers, and beyond.
- Invite all of your friends and family to the Facebook event, and ask them to invite all of their friends and family (and remind them of the latter a few times!).
- Email/call/speak with your friends and family to ask them to buy their tickets as soon as possible, and to spread the word far and wide.
- If you are on Twitter, tweet daily (or several times a day), with messages such as: “Join me at the life-changing doc @Speciesism: The Movie! [***FACEBOOK EVENT PAGE LINK***].” Also tweet to friends/supporters, asking them to do the same.
- Let supporters know that the best way to describe the movie to friends and family is as a funny, interesting adventure, following the journey of a young man as he makes shocking, first-hand discoveries about the factory farming industry, and delves into to some of the most fascinating philosophical questions of our time. You might also want to suggest, and practice yourself:
- If you’ve discussed animal issues at all with particular friends or family members before, then instead of telling them that you want them to see the movie as though you’re trying to persuade them of something, tell them it’s a funny, entertaining adventure that follows the story of a guy trying to figure out some of the questions you’ve discussed with them, and let them know that you want to hear their opinions on it. (Of course, this is especially good if the person saying it hasn’t seen the movie, either; they can add that as well!)
- Try to avoid mentioning vegetarianism or veganism when promoting the movie (that might put people off about deciding to watch it), and try to avoid creating the misimpression that it’s an “advocacy” film.
- When discussing the movie with people who are already familiar with some of the issues, mention that it does not contain excessive graphic or upsetting footage. (This appears to be the number one reason when such people decide not to attend a screening!)
- Put up posters all around town! Download this 11″ x 17″ poster, and customize it by typing “WHEN: [DATE/TIME]” / “WHERE: [LOCATION]” / “TICKETS *ONLY* AT: [TICKET PAGE, IF APPLICABLE]” into the editable text area.