When both of our redtops start promoting discount offers for high culture in the pages of the papers then you know that any remaining class snobbery about the kinds of art that should be enjoyed by certain kinds of people have finally disappeared.
Last summer, the Sun teamed up with the Helen Hamlyn Trust and the Royal Opera House to promote bargain basement tickets for Don Giovanni. It must have worked, because just a few weeks ago the Mirror announced their partnership with The Royal Shakespeare Company and the Prudential to promote a family ticket offer to see Shakespeare for £20. By collecting tokens in the Mirror readers could purchase tickets to see a range of shows.
The promotion is part of the RSC’s campaign ‘Stand Up for Shakespeare’ which aims to encourage more young people to experience and enjoy Shakespeare performed live. Of course, reinventions of Shakespeare are not new – Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet was just one of a host of Hollywood teen films that borrowed heavily from the bard. But what makes this interesting is the brands that have coalesced around the project and worked together to ensure that the campaign reaches an audience not usually associated with Stratford on Avon. Prudential, the Mirror and even Coronation Street have worked together to promote the project – with the corrie blog getting in on the act and drawing parallels between shakespearean characters and corrie’s finest.
