Michael Moore's NYC "Capitalism" Premiere: Unintentional Branding From Bailed-Out Banks

Though you'd never know from the title, the New York premiere of Michael Moore's "Capitalism: A Love Story" did have some notable brands associated with it (hat tip to Daily Intel). Though Moore's film is a critique of unchecked free market fervor -- check HuffPost's big news page on Moore's film -- the NYC showing did, as the New York Times put it, "draw a large number of women in Chanel dresses and men with Rolex watches."

Interestingly, Lincoln Center, which hosted the event, has some unintentionally hilarious branding from some notorious bailed-out banks. Here's the NYT:

Also at Monday's premiere was a family featured in the film being evicted from their home in Peoria, Ill., by representatives of Citigroup. The family patriarch yelled to Mr. Moore from the audience that he thought the film was "great." He may not have realized he was yelling from a seat in the 'Citi Balcony.'

Here's how the WSJ described the premiere:

Before the film, the crowd sipped champagne and cocktails in the "Morgan Stanley Lobby" and then headed to their seats in the "Citi Balcony." Movie tickets were available at the "Bank of New York Box Office" and there's outdoor seating at the "Credit Suisse Information Grandstand.

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Comments

[Tulka2]

08:02 PM on 10/02/2009

The American economic system can best be discribed as a lottery.

[RomeoMD25]

10:01 AM on 09/24/2009

The global warming scam passed by Congress. Goldman Sachs is in the middle of it, as usual– a potential trillion dollar sure thing.

And Former Vice President Al Gore who will profit from the cap-and-trade plan through his company, Generation Investment Management,–
Gore is joined by three former Goldman Sachs heads in their carbon offsets business.

[FlightLover]

01:39 PM on 09/24/2009

WMDs did great for your Halliburton friends.

[LCLA]

11:13 PM on 09/23/2009

How long will it take for those of us who live where movies from the likes of Micheal Moore are never going to play at our cinemas? The only Michael Moore movie which ever played on the big screen here was Farenheit 9-11, and that stayed only a week.
The reason is partly political censorship, but the main reason is that our theaters rarely show anything that the pubescent male crowd can't be counted upon to see it over and over again.
So, when does the video come out on DVD?

[FlightLover]

01:45 PM on 09/24/2009

Um, where do you live? (Don't answer that) Demand your cinema owners show it...they must be afraid of something if they aren't...or pocketing something.

[twofish]

11:00 PM on 09/23/2009

To suppose, as we all suppose, that we could be rich and not behave as the rich behave, is like supposing that we could drink all day and keep absolutely sober.
-- Logan Piersall Smith, _Afterthoughts_

[Tulka2]

08:08 PM on 10/02/2009

Everyone pretends our economic system is a meritocracy. "People are rich because they work hard and God loves them".

[JulieDole]

02:10 PM on 09/23/2009

Interesting article today on "zombie" stock speculating in dead companies (WaMo, Loehman Bros., Fannie Mae, etc)

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bankrupt-stocks24-2009sep24,0,7510369.story

[NoMoreBailOut]

01:20 PM on 09/23/2009

The fed is playing in re inflating the housing & finance bubble while the public willingly lets it happen (not that we could stop if if we wanted to). We're all too busy getting rich with stocks while the Wall Street crooks resume their treachery knowing they will get bailed out yet again.

good articles 4 slow news day; http://www.iamned.com

The lack of any finance or heath care reform is appalling

[JulieDole]

02:15 PM on 09/23/2009

Yes, exactly.

Also, re: zombie stock speculating in ruined companies:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-bankrupt-stocks24-2009sep24,0,7510369.story

and re: the tendency to forget or underestimate the likelihood of financial crashes:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2009/09/13/why_capitalism_fails/?page=full

[NoMoreBailOut]

01:20 PM on 09/23/2009

The fed is playing in re inflating the housing & finance bubble while the public willingly lets it happen (not that we could stop if if we wanted to). We're all too busy getting rich with stocks while the Wall Street crooks resume their treachery knowing they will get bailed out yet again.

The lack of any finance or heath care reform is appalling

[cobobs]

01:08 PM on 09/23/2009

We watch sports from "Staples Center" and WSJ talks about: "Before the film, the crowd sipped champagne and cocktails in the "Morgan Stanley Lobby" and then headed to their seats in the "Citi Balcony." This is ominous, because at the rate things are going, there will soon be the congressman brought to you by Nike, and the Senator from Starbucks and the Yahoo! Supreme Court justice. Maybe they are here already, but they do not wear the label proudly. Yet.

[twofish]

10:53 PM on 09/23/2009

Thom Hartmann says they ought to be forced to wear NASCAR type uniforms, with their sponsors' logos prominently displayed. That way you could tell who owns who at a glance.

[FlightLover]

01:40 PM on 09/24/2009

OUTSTANDING!!!

[FloresdelaHoz]

09:55 AM on 09/23/2009

As a diehard commiephobe, I don't trust Michael Moore. Having said that, I can't ignore that the top 1% of Americans owns 32% of all financial assets in this country. This is more than in any LatAm country including Brazil. I can't ignore that the top 1% were bailed out by Bush - Obama who gave away US$13 trillion in guarantee to financial institutions while US$1 trillion over 10 years for public health option is stopped dead on its track by the top 1% who control the American health care industry.

The upper middle class gets screwed in this country everyday. They get taxed at the effective federal marginal tax rate of 35% (44% including state income tax in California or NY) while the wealthy receive dividends and capital gains that are taxed at 15%. So if you make $300K a year you pay more taxes (effective tax rate) than someone who receives $10M in dividends a year.

The poor and middle class get even more screwed since they are indentured servants who children do all the fighting and dying for the American empire.

The problem with changing our current crony capitalist system to are more efficient and moral honest German or Nordic model is that the media is controlled by the top 1%. The media divide Americans down racial lines or ethnic lines. So we find ourselves in a country where Joe the Plumber types are successfully indoctinated by the Murdoch media to protect the interest of the top

[mjeffn]

10:40 AM on 09/23/2009

Diehard commie phobe, the cold war was over a quarter of a century ago. It's time you forget that stuff and focus on the current things you mention.

[squat6971]

11:07 AM on 09/23/2009

you may be a "diehard commiephobe" (whatever that means), but you are well on your way to seeing the light -- enlightened socialism!

[Oakland]

05:50 AM on 09/23/2009

What? Socialists aren't allowed to drink champaigne or attend premieres? Quit your whining.

Just a lot of corporate propaganda trying to do what they do best - sneer and demonize anything that might possibly threaten their share of the pie. Michael Moore could hold a showing in Citibank Corporate headquarters, and it wouldn't change a thing.

[JulieDole]

03:31 PM on 09/23/2009

Isn't being an actual socialist an oxymoron?

I thought socialism by Marxist definition only exists as a specific economic state, once capitalism was entirely extinguished, which has never happened anywhere, nor ever likely will.

Wait, here's the wiki, the Marxist definition:
"from each according to his ability, to each according to their work"

Rewarding good work.

Gee, that sounds more like a democratic type of capitalism, no?

Where's that Marxism for Dummies book?

[UNCLEJOE]

04:33 AM on 09/23/2009

KARL MARX WAS On Sep 19, 2008, at 11:43 PM, Joe lanza wrote:
The most obvious trend in all these buy-ups of other insurance companies starting with Bears Stearns and ending with AIG is a concentration of wealth and financial power that is merging into fewer and fewer consortiums which is a harbinger of the one World Global entity which will dominate the lives and futures of 99.999 percent of the world's population. When that becomes obvious to the rest of the world it will be too late to protest because all power of the people will be too weak to revolt.

Karl Marx was right after all when he prophesied that Capitalism would self-distruct that Capitalism unrestrained would destroy the workers freedoms, and it will happen within decades unless we wake up and take Naomi Wolf's advice and revolt now while we still have the power to win against our true enemies, the Neo Cons that are orchestrating the financial disasters to buy up the wealth of bankrupt insurance companies with public tax dollars at basement bargains, the concentration of wealth which resides primarily in the insurance companies with exceptions like Morgan Stanley and the Bank of America that surreptitiously control the Federal Reserve System.

END THE FED before it is too late

[vippy]

12:11 PM on 09/23/2009

Actually, his theory looks good on paper, but then came the greedy and things went astray!

[cobobs]

01:15 PM on 09/23/2009

There is a balance, a sweet spot where the productive energies of capitalism meet with the redistributive impulse of socialism to produce mass prosperity, fairness and stability. The hard thing is finding that sweet spot and maintaining it. FDR had a keen sense about this, and saved America by finding that sweet spot. Due to the excesses of the financial class, the US could have succumbed to a communist revolution in the 1930s, pushing it to the other ideological extreme. I maintain that the US won the Cold War by avoiding ideological extremism and the Soviet system crumbled under the weight of ideological purity, which tabooed thinking outside the prescribed box.

[dadw5boys]

04:27 AM on 09/23/2009

Ushers heard people saying " I did that ."

"I know how to do that ", and " My company does that all the time ".

[anticapitalist1983]

04:03 AM on 09/23/2009

A capitalist will gladly sell you the very rope you intend to hang him with.

way to go michael. keep tying those knots!

[arlandbaee]

03:45 AM on 09/23/2009

Anyone who maligns Mr. Moore based solely on his films is completely reprehensible. I have listened and watched all of his stories and agreed with some and disagreed with others. I agree with his take on health care and its intrinsic corruption. I disagree with his opinion regarding capitalism and its inherent evil. But for anyone to be in complete disagreement with everything he says, every point he makes and every comparison he introduces is the real liar. The mere suggestion of complete and total disagreement proves the lie and the liar. I wouldn't even attempt to defend how fair I think I am if I was forced to contend with complete and utter denial. How can anyone? No one benefits from creating, corroborating or continuing a lie.

[dadw5boys]

04:21 AM on 09/23/2009

Capitalist like J.P. Morgan are long dead. They were Patriots first.

[truthmatterstoo]

01:38 AM on 09/23/2009

Why is it not ok for Michael Moore to earn a living and to be sucessful? He just did not steal his money, unlike the ones he made the movie about.

[adamnb]

03:32 AM on 09/23/2009

This article seems to be a smear job that implies that Moore is a puppet of the rich. The article also neglects to say anything substantial about the movie's contents. I'd be surprised if the writer saw the movie.