Blockbuster To Waste $15-20 Million On TV Ads

Bankrupt relic of a bygone time, Blockbuster Video, announced plans yesterday to launch its first national TV ad campaign since 2007 and that they plan on somehow taking aim at Redbox and Netflix.

After Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy in late September, it received $125 million in funding to stay afloat. Now the company says it will spend $15-20 million of that on an ad campaign.

From Reuters:

The goal of the campaign is to increase awareness in the fact that Blockbuster rents new releases 28 days before Netflix and Redbox, a unit of Coinstar, Blockbuster said.

For much of the past year, Blockbuster has tried to make a big deal about having many new, hit (dare we say “blockbuster”) DVDs for rental 28 days before Netflix. However, Netflix has continued to stress that it’s main goal is making its selection of streaming videos more robust, rather than just offering the most recent releases.

And then there’s the bigger concern with Blockbuster — Would you want to sign up for a membership with a company that has already declared bankruptcy when there are other services that are getting stronger?

Blockbuster kicking off TV ad campaign [Reuters]

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