Ba-Bah Ba-Bah Ba-Bah Ba-Bah-Ba-Ba-Bah (pearlanddean.com)

Member Name: blackjane

Product:	pearlanddean.com
Date:	29/11/01 (381 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some Useful Information

Disadvantages: Geared predominantly towards potential advertisers

Jane Torville and Christopher Dean were the finest purveyors of ice dance that this country has ever seen, which is interesting to note - but of absolutely no relevance at all to this particular web site (for anyone who thought that I had temporarily lost my marbles!)

Now that I have got that feeble joke out of the way, it's on with providing you with some useful information instead. The name 'Pearl & Dean' will probably sound very familiar to many of you - in fact anyone that has visited a cinema theatre in this country during their lifetime. This company has been in existence for almost half a century now (since 1953 in fact) and has championed advertising at movie theatres in the UK. In fact the only people who have never seen or heard of Pearl & Dean will be those amongst you that never go and watch films on the big screen, or those that arrive fashionably late and miss all the adverts. Personally, I always hate to miss the start of a film so always end up seeing the adverts whether I like it or not. You may also know Pearl & Dean from their trademark 'Ba-Bah Ba-Bah Ba-Bah Ba-Bah-Ba-Ba-Bah' jingle, which I guess I could have described better, but you'll definitely remember next time you hear it if you are still at a loss to recall it now.

As well as representing a significant share of all advertising at cinemas (currently 43% via recent acquisitions, although it was once more than 50% in the 1970s) Pearl & Dean also have a highly informative web presence. The web site (which can be found at www.pearlanddean.com) has a cornucopia of information for the avid film enthusiast. The content is not limited to the promotional work that it carries out, but also includes information on film charts, box office takings, cinema details and much much more. There is also quite a lot of historical information in addition to current box office charts.

The Flash intro to the site is very eye-catching although with anything like t
his, the time it takes to load tends to detract from how impressive it actually is. The content available at this site strikes an uneasy balance, trying to convey the work that Pearl & Dean does by spicing it up with other film-related information that casual visitors are likely to find more useful and interesting. However, even though much of the information is aimed at potential advertisers, it would still be of some interest to movie fans as well.

Site navigation is aided by a menu down the left hand side of each web page, displaying main sections, many of which have their own clickable sub-sections. The site also has details of forthcoming films in 'film search' as well as full details of cinemas in 'screen search.' Each cinema entry shows the full address and telephone number details as well as theatre capacities.

In addition to providing the majority of its own content, the site also has links to film reviews, courtesy of Virgin radio. The links section, in particular, has details of several other key web sites of film distributors, exhibitors, agencies and other related companies. It is also possible to subscribe to this web site for updates by providing your name and e-mail address. However, the relevant sign-up page gives little indication of the sort of content you will receive in subsequent updates.

On the whole, this site is aimed more at a business user or potential advertiser rather than the average Joe on the street, but that is not to say that there is some extremely useful industry information available for your browsing pleasure.

{Another original Dooyoo opinion
© Blackjane 2001}

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