Misleading marketing must go now... and you can quote me on that

Truth in advertising is important, not least because quotes are designed to get people to spend money and the Lempicka top price is a hefty $269 (£217). But Schulman   smelt a rat, not least because Green succeeded   Brantley as the Times’ theatre critic more than three years ago. Brantley’s review was for an earlier incarnation of the show way back in 2018.

It gets worse. None of the words quoted from either critic appeared in print consecutively. Those phrases were assembled from words that weren’t originally even in the same paragraph, let alone sentence.

The marketeer’s job is to present a show in its best possible light, so a degree of judicious editing to encourage people to see it is generally accepted. But there are limits and making up quotes is way past them. The ad, unsurprisingly, was pulled. 

Interestingly, pre-Brexit, it wouldn’t have been possible to try that ploy here and, around a decade ago, I was slightly stunned to learn that I was part of the reason why.

A degree of editing is acceptable in marketing, but making up quotes is beyond the limit

At lunch at a theatregoing friend’s house with people I’d not met before, conversation turned to reviews. I told them about being misquoted after reviewing Zipp!, an enervating, lazy whistle-stop tour through 100 musicals in 90 minutes. 

Listing its many infelicities, I had written:   “The Sweeney Todd sequence is built around the rhyme: ‘He’s got a chopper/ Oh, it’s a whopper.’ If schoolboy innuendo is your bag, book now.” Passing the Duchess   Theatre a little later, I was less than pleased to see my name outside accompanied just two words from my review: “Book now.” After my complaint and much-feigned innocence and wringing of hands, the producers finally took it down.

To my astonishment, one of the lunch guests piped up: “It’s you! I know that story because I drafted the EU directive on false advertising. You’re cited in European case law.” The trouble is that post-Brexit,   EU directives no longer apply. 

Occasionally, dodgy marketing is almost applaudable. The (dire) musical Troubadour opened in the West End in December 1980 but closed three months later. According to legend, in January a banner went up: “Now in its second year!”

But as the Lempicka story shows,   calling out misrepresentation and mis-selling is obviously a good thing for audiences. Without the truthful use of criticism, there is only marketing. Or, in this instance, swindling.