Thursday, May 13, 2010

Auteurs now Mubi

Well this is weird.
The Auteurs, a really terrific site for film lovers, has changed it's name to Mubi. As in a mispronuncation of 'movie'. [Note it is not Mumbai].

According to Anne Thompson the reason was because the site's founder, Efe Cakarel, felt that 'auteurs' was too difficult to market. So he got a bunch of ad agencies to come up with a new name.

So, essentially, because Cakarel couldn't figure out how to market a real word that has a specific meaning to people who love movies he hired a bunch of ad agencies to make up a fake word that sounds like baby talk but is [maybe] catchy enough to get more visitors to the site.

If anything, this is just silly. But in many ways it is also disappointing because it seems Cakarel couldn't be bothered to ask his core of daily site readers and users to help come up with a newer, catchier name. Instead, he sought outside help from folks who most likely never visit the site. Not too loyal of him. How loyal should we be toward him?

I like the site enough to check it out every other day; Especially the terrific Notebook section gathered each day by David Hudson. However, I'll still refer to the site as 'The Auteurs'.

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Update: The best comment I have seen thus far is this one from someone called Gokinsmen

Still, I would love to know the story behind this name change.

“We need a new name…”
“Okay. What do internet geeks like?”
“Movies. Boobs.”
lightbulb
“I’ve got it!”

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