< /seinfeld >
OMG..Reefer Madness...in 1975 I was elected President of my Sophomore High School Class. For our main fundraiser we decided to show REEFER MADNESS. To promote the movie, some of my friends made posters with things like Bloodshot eyes, smoke coming out of someone’s mouth, etc. We never actually said the name of the movie, but we put “COME SATURDAY NIGHT” on all the posters. Good, huh? Oh no...
So, the day before we were going to announce what it actually was, all the posters were taken down. Apparently, one of the lunch ladies thought we were promoting a POT PARTY at someone’s house and told the principal who had all the posters taken down. Hence, the fundraiser was a disaster and being the 1970’s, talk of impeachment came up. Yes, they tried to impeach me!!! LOL! It’s so funny now. I was not impeached, but it wasn’t one of my finest moments.
I’ve been thinking about this lately because I’m thinking of running for office in 2012. I think this would be a fun story to tell people!!! What’s the lesson? Even if you have a great marketing plan, make sure you run it by the right authorities!
You running for office? Will you highlight your pro abortion platform?
< /seinfeld >
Naw, the lesson is to "hit and run".
Don Sonney and David Friedman tell a number of stories about the film exploitation trade. "Back in the day" they would have to make the pitch to the local censor (Baltimore had its own censor up in the 1980s and they gave John Waters a real hard time with his films).
Anyway, they would make the appeal to the city council, leaders of the community, etc. and tell them how these films were "educational" about the horrors of drug abuse, white slavery, loose libidos, sexual ignorance, gambling, etc.
On at least one occasion, Don Sonney got run out of town for showing a hotter version of the film (maybe with an alternate title screen) than what he pitched to the civic leaders.
Two good documentaries on this:
(hosted by Ned Beatty) 
(bio-interview film with Dave Friedman and Don Sonney)