A few weeks ago, I saw a great advertisement for the History Channel at the movie theater.  It highlighted most of their major shows and announced the new season for all of my favorite things.  The unfortunate thing was that it also upset a LOT of people in the movie theater.

Last season, the History Channel ran a TV special about what would happen to the planet if, suddenly, all human life vanished.  What would our pets do, how would our buildings survive, and so on and so forth.  One of the most interesting segments in the show was the part where they covered major landmarks like the Eifel tower, the Roman viaduct, and the Seattle Space Needle.

Realistically, they all fall down after several hundred years of disrepair.  You’d expect that.  The CGI of the Space Needle collapsing is really quite stunning.  Incorporating the clip into an advertisement in a Seattle movie theater without any explanation of where the clip is from, though … you can probably see the issue with that.

Advertising a large entity like the History Channel can be tricky.  Segmenting too far can be costly and actually negate the benefit of advertising.  Not segmenting far enough, though, can cost you a great deal in certain markets.  I doubt anyone watching the advertisment in Fresno even noticed the clip.  When you see the Space Needle every day during your morning commute, though, it’s easy to recognize a flash on the movie screen.

How far is ‘too far’ for segmented advertising in your market?  How far is ‘not far enough?’