Now THIS is how you start to beat online movie piracy

The UK film industry launches a series of cinema ads tomorrow, encouraging young people not to illegally obtain movies by digital means.

The You Make The Movies campaign consists of three spoof versions of classic films with the positive message that “You makes the movies – and your cinema ticket helps support the film industry in the UK”.

Although there’s no mention of illegal downloading, the campaign might actually work. For a long time the public has laughed at the film industry’s attempts at scaring the public into giving up filesharing. This new campaign (videos unfortunately not embeddable) takes a more positive, feel-good approach that might, the might, make cinemagoers feel like their freeloading is having an impact on the ability for future films to be made.

There’s no way a campaign like this can solve the problem overnight, but if it can just plant a seed in some of its audience’s mind, it will have done its job.

As the ads aren’t embeddable here, you’ll have to go here to watch them. By way of comparison, here’s an example of the over-the-top-to-the-point-of-irritating approach previous anti-piracy ads have taken. We much prefer the new direction.

[via New Media Age]