They try to plaster their logos on everything from football stadiums to cheap give-away t-shirts, but the moment you snap a photo of that logo, they treat it as if it were some Pentagon top secret war plan.
It was only last month that I was told by Camel cigarette employees that I was not allowed to photograph their logo, even though I was standing on a public sidewalk where they were trying to get young adults hooked on their product.
The latest corporation to go Gestapo on photographers is AMC Theatres, the second largest movie theater chain in North America.
A woman named Chalicechick told Consumerist that she snapped a photo of a poster AMC had put up stating that children younger than six would no longer be allowed in R-rated movies after 6 p.m.
Chalicechick was so thrilled at the news that she took out her cell phone and photographed the poster. She happened to be standing outside at the ticket booth when she did this.
Then she walked inside and was confronted by an AMC employee in the lobby.
“You’re not allowed to take pictures of the AMC logo” she snapped.
I thought of pointing out the legal issues with that one, but I’d already paid for a ticket to the 3-d Alice in Wonderland and didn’t want to get kicked out.
“Um, OK” I said. My friend was late and I was standing in the lobby waiting for her. I was bored so I pulled out my phone.
“Are you taking pictures AGAIN?” the employee snapped, racing over.
Again, I was in the lobby. I guess I could have been taking a picture of a movie poster or the popcorn guy or something, but nothing remotely close to photographing a movie or anything actually illegal.
“I’m, um, looking at Twitter,” I said, holding up my phone.
She examined it intently, taking it out of my hand to make sure I wasn’t, in fact, photographing the popcorn guy. I had actually been looking at twitter, so she handed my phone back and my friend showed up and that was that.
First of all, there is no way in hell I would allow an AMC employee to snatch my phone out of my hand. I probably wouldn’t even let a cop do that.
Second of all, if I had been confronted by an employee for taking such a harmless photo, I would probably demand to speak to a manager and depending on how that went, I would probably end up demanding my money back.
And third of all, I would not be complimenting the company on my blog on their new policy. But Chalicechick still salutes them. Literally.
AMC Theatres, Chalicechick salutes you
Maybe she wants free movie tickets or something.
