"No Talking or Phones" Warning

They didn't say anything about not wearing ridiculous hats, though.

"If you have an emergency, step into the hallway. Otherwise, IT CAN WAIT!"

— Cinemark policy trailer

A form of Paratext used in cinemas and live theatre, reminding audiences to turn off cell phones and refrain from disruptive behaviours during the performance. They range in complexity from a simple oral or written request for silence, to comical demonstrations of innocent audience members being hassled by neighbors' increasingly extreme misbehavior, to elaborate faux-trailers for nonexistent movies that get interrupted by noise from the audience to show how distracting such racket can be.

The cinematic versions, produced by theater chains, are formally known as "policy trailers". Very old examples such as a poster for a sold-out Beethoven concert in the early 1800s asks gentlemen to refrain from wearing their swords, due to space constraints in the theater. Old versions sometimes mention crying babies rather than cell phones, asking that noisy infants be taken to the lobby. Warnings against smoking ^note This one is becoming less prevalent in the US as most theaters are non-smoking by law and so it's assumed that they don't need to actually tell people not to. and littering are optional but recommended. And of course, there is the obligatory, "In case of fire, walk quietly to the nearest exit. This notice required by law."^note  Although not legally mandated, many U.S. theaters have added a sobering "Report suspicious characters" notice in the wake of the mass theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado. Dire warnings of legal consequences for recording films in progress offer yet another reason to keep your phone switched off. Live theatre also typically warns the audience not to use flash photography, which can be distracting and even dangerous to the performers.

When these rules are not followed by the audience, see Disrupting the Theater.

Theme parks have similar spiels before many rides and shows — keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times, don't put on the 3D glasses until you're seated in the theater, etc. Again, these can be handled in creative, funny ways.

Platypus Comix has the Policy Trailer Jamboree, while FT Depot (originally Film-Tech Cinema Systems) are currently uploading high-quality trailers to their YouTube channel.

TV Tropes kindly asks you to refrain from using your cell phone while reading this article.^note Which, presumably, means you can't read this article on your cell phone at all.

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In-Universe Examples/Parodies

Film — Animated

• Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters has one by Mastodon. And it is awesome.
  • Among other things, they threaten to cut your face off for talking during the film, tell you to throw your baby into traffic because the film isn't suitable for children, and declare that if you are caught illegally taping the film, they will tear your wife in half.
• Delicious Party♡Pretty Cure: Dreaming♡Children's Lunch! opens with a quick reminder from Cure Precious not to talk loudly or wander the theatre during the film, accompanied by illustrations of the mascots demonstrating good and bad cinema behaviour. By this time, they’d eschewed Audience Participation with the Miracle Lights.
• The Garden of Sinners movie adaptations has one for each movie, starring stop motion clay dolls of the cast. One such example.
• The Simpsons Movie:
  • The sign outside of the church at the beginning of the movie reads "Thou Shalt Silence Thy Cell Phone".
  • While Homer is out to dispose of his silo full of pig crap, he hears a faint cellphone ringtone and looks around for its source. It turns out it's his own phone, which is in the pig's stomach.
• In Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Slade tells the audience that the Justice League is watching a movie, and therefore can not come and stop him due to them turning off their cell phones. He then breaks the fourth wall and notices that some people watching could be on their phones.
• Parodied in Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time Abridged as can be seen here. ^note The actual warning starts at 1:20, though the lead-up to it is tangentially related
  • Also, besides parodying the trope, it also references/parodies the Aqua Teen Hunger Force example.

Film — Live-Action

• Spoofed in Tampopo, in which a Yakuza gangster does the reminder at the start of the movie and not-so-subtly hints at violent punishment for offenders.
• Parodied in God Bless America, where Frank and Roxy shoot people in a movie theatre for talking on their phones, throwing popcorn, putting their legs up on the seats in front of them, and generally being pests. Frank proceeds to thank the one woman they leave alive for not talking during the feature and for turning off her cell phone, much in the style of one of these policy trailers.
• Mike Birbiglia's Sleepwalk With Me movie begins with one of his older stand-up routines, asking people to turn them off then relating the story of someone answering their phone in a theater next to him with, "Who dis?"
  "Not only was he willing to talk to someone on the phone, he was willing to talk to anyone on the phone."
• One trailer for Escape from L.A. goes along these lines, getting increasingly alarming as it goes on. Starting with "no talking, no smoking", it then moves into "no red meat", and then "no freedom of religion". Failure to obey these rules results in loss of citizenship, and deportation to Los Angeles.
• Referenced in World War Z, when Gerry's phone goes off as the soldiers are sneaking past a Z herd during the Korea mission. One of the soldiers snarks about this trope just before the zombies attack.
• Wimbledon: Ron Roth's phone rings in the middle of the final match of the titular tournament. As he scrambles to hang up, the umpire reminds the crowd that mobile phones are supposed to be switched off inside Centre Court. This scene was actually used as a real-life in-cinema warning in the UK during the film's theatrical run.

Live-Action TV

• Doctor Who: In "Silence in the Library", an information-pylon very politely requests that Library patrons switch off their mobile coms for the comfort of others. This is a bit jarring, given that it'd just relayed an alarming Apocalyptic Log message from a dying Head Librarian.
• The 90s Nickelodeon short Innie and Outie (where characters are portrayed by human chests and stomachs in live-action) had a scene in a movie theatre where an amusing "No Smoking" policy trailer plays.
• Parodied in the How I Met Your Mother episode "Bachelor Party." Before his stripper starts her intricate performance, Barney tells his friends, "Please turn off your cell phones, pagers, and sense of shame."
• One of the host segments in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Mystery Science Theater 3000 S04 E04: Teenagers from Outer Space, has Joel and the Bots re-enacting the General Cinema "space candy" policy trailer (See below).
• Jimmy Kimmel Live! had a skit parodying "Let's All Go To The Lobby" advising moviegoers not to cough on people.
• Qi: In the Series 9 episode "The Immortal Bard", the panel discussed theatrical superstitions. Bill Bailey pointed out that a superstition stating that it was bad luck to whistle backstage was originally a practical concern since stagehands whistled to signal changing the set between scenes. David Mitchell then said that they adopt that idea with cell phones, to make people thing having a cell phone on during a stage performance was bad luck.
  David Mitchell: Or, if there was an article in, I don't know, say The Daily Mail suggesting that other people's disapproval was carcinogenic.

Video Games

• The opening bumper to one of Grand Theft Auto V's in-universe movies spoofs this, with a stickman usher kindly warning the audience against taking calls or texts, crying babies and public masturbation. This being Grand Theft Auto, after each example is shown the offenders are all violently murdered by the usher.
• Emil and 2B warn the audience to not take out their phones or make any noise for NieR: Automata concerts, with the former singing his signature ditty to do so, while 2B treats the audience as if they're also part of YoRHa.

Web Animation

• Homestar Runner featured a "No bazookas" warning in a movie theater in the Strong Bad Email "the movies", "Because no one wants to watch a smoldering crater."

Webcomics

• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal features a theater with a "tough, but fair" policy in this comic: any words spoken out loud will be carved into the speaker's face with a fork. (If you yell any words, they'll use a spoon instead.)

Western Animation

• Spoofed in the The Simpsons episode "Jaws Wired Shut" with a theater running a graphic Itchy and Scratchy sketch, "To Kill a Talking Bird".
• In the Tiny Toon Adventures movie How I Spent My Vacation, a movie screening is preceded by what starts out as an advertisement for the Acme Gazette newspaper turn into the warning "No smoking cigarettes in the theater". A giant, anthropomorphic lit cigarette leaves the venue, grumbling all the way, as the kids who were seated near it cheer.
• The opening title caption of the Futurama episode "Godfellas": "Please turn off all cell phones and tricorders".
• An episode of Family Guy had a parody of the "Let's all go to the lobby" commercial from the 50s about theatre shootings.
• The probable Ur-Example is in the 1937 Merrie Melodies short "She Was an Acrobat's Daughter" directed by Friz Freleng. In the theatre, there are slides for a singalong, but by accident(?) a warning gets in, causing all the audience to enthusiastically sing "Please do not spit on the floor!"

Real Life

Live Theatre Spiels

• Particularly distinctive Cirque du Soleil examples:
  • The preshow warning by Mystère's emcee Moha-Samedi and his bird puppet is called back to twice via Non-Ironic Clown Brian Le Petit. First, in a blackout skit he tries to take a photo of the whole audience and when Moha-Samedi chews him out over it offers to take his photo (tricking him into stepping off a high ledge in the process). Later, when he gains control of the puppet, he tells the audience that they are now free to smoke, take pictures, and take their clothes off before Moha-Samedi gets it back.
  • The adults-only show Zumanity has the band's singers sing the preshow spiel. Perhaps the sexiest example ever!
  • The Hollywood-exclusive show IRIS also had a sung preshow spiel... but sung by its composer, Danny Elfman!
  • KÀ features a dialogue-free warning in which an actor in the audience is caught breaking the rules: using flash photography, having his cell phone on, and smoking (in that order). Unfortunately, it's the show's bad guys who catch him, and in turn they throw his camera into a giant pit...then his cell phone...then him.
• Broadway has been trying to get these to be more interesting in recent years, in an ineffectual attempt to get people to pay attention and actually DO it. One way is getting celebrities associated with the show to provide a recorded announcement:
  • Co-writer Harvey Fierstein did the honors for the 2010 revival of La Cage aux folles. Fierstein also recorded the spiel for the 2022 revival of Funny Girl, since he revised the book for this version.
  • A David Mamet spiel preceded the Broadway premiere of American Buffalo — complete with a Precision F-Strike.
  • Julie Andrews, who voiced Queen Lillian in the movies, recorded a spiel for Shrek: The Musical that warns that an ogre will drag anyone using a cellphone "Far, far away."
  • Mean Girls has Tina Fey tell the audience to put their phones away because "Twitter isn't cool, Instagram is for thirst traps, and Snapchat is over," and anybody calling or texting you during the show isn't a real friend.
  • The 2023 revival of Parade was given by Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, since the show takes place in Georgia.
• The Spongebob Musical: One of the security guards that deals with Patchy the Pirate figures she might as well tell the audience to turn their phones off as long as she's on stage.
• The Broadway revival of The Rocky Horror Show suggested the audience set their phones on vibrate. "You LOVE that!"
• Spamalot's Eric Idle tells the audience to let your phones ring willy-nilly before reminding you that most of the characters in the show are heavily armed knights who can and will drag you on stage and impale you.
• At least one regional production of Urinetown had an actor planted in the audience whose cell phone rang during the pre-show message - causing the police to drag him away.
• Many productions of Hair have one of the hippies remind the audience that there were no cell phones in 1969, so please turn them off in order to maintain the illusion of the show.
• The 2015 revival of On The Twentieth Century, which takes place in the 1930s, reminds the audience there were no cell phones in that era.
• The Las Vegas production of The Phantom of the Opera had the Phantom doing the preshow voiceover and warning that if anyone broke the rules, he would not be responsible for the consequences...
• In the Broadway adaptation of Kinky Boots, the character Don is seen on his phone before the show. He delivers the warning as he hangs up.
• Another technique is using sound effects to make it seem like phones are actually going off in the audience before an official announcement; at The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe this actually tied into the sound design for the show itself.
• One of the Maryland renaissance-festival acts will collect ringing phones in a glass jar with other phones (most of which are broken already).
• The musical Secrets Every Smart Traveler Should Know began with the warning being delivered in the manner of an in-flight safety lecture.
• Similarly, the musical Catch Me If You Can began with an announcement delivered in the manner of an announcement as a flight is landing.
• The DVD of Reduced Shakespeare Company's The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) includes a warning during this segment about oxygen masks falling from the ceiling, and a reminder that if you are at the theater with a child to make sure you put your own mask on first and let the little bugger fend for himself.
• In The Frogs, the Invocation and Instructions to the Audience, among other things, has the leads sing for the audience to remember to not open candy wrappers, not get up for the bathroom in the middle of the show, and to turn off their cellphones. The last one is accompanied by the sound of a phone ringing and them reacting with disgust, only for it to be revealed that it's one of their own phones (the owner of the phone proceeds to run off the stage answering the call, with "Can you hear me now? How about now?"). The instructions also get a bit meta and bizarre, as they also instruct the audience to react positively to the jokes, to not shout, "What?" in response to lines not understood, and not to fart for lack of oxygen. There's also a plea not to swim ("the theater's a temple, not a gym!") which is a reference to the first production of the show, held in the Yale swimming pool.
• The Fiasco Theater's version of Shakespeare's Cymbeline featured a sung one, blended in with the play's introduction ("To All You Patrons Now At Hand").
• In Playhouse Disney: Live On Tour!, the Little Einsteins start off the second act by reminding the audience to turn off their cellphones.
• Ross Noble used an animated one (sung by him) on one of his tours, warning patrons of all the horrible things that could happen if they used a mobile phone during the show: such as contracting cancer and dying.
• This entry for Easter Bonnet 2016 parodies "Turn It Off" from The Book of Mormon telling people to turn off their cell phones.
• Waitress opens with a Sara Bareilles song about turning off your phone in the theater.
• "The Whole Being Dead Thing" from Beetlejuice features the titular character warning the audience, "And if I hear your cell-phone ringing, I’ll kill you myself!"
  • Speaking of Beetlejuice, here is a video from Playbill.com going over theater etiquette formatted similarly to one of these.
• The Broadway production of Be More Chill had the SQUIP instruct the audience that using any technology would result in "the termination of your viewing experience." It ends, fairly creepily, by telling everyone to "sit back, unplug, and enjoy..."
• Dear Evan Hansen uses digital scenery around the stage to replicate social media pages. Before the show and right after intermission, the scenery displays several messages, formatted similar to iPhone reminders, to turn off your cell phone, with an accompanying default ringtone sound effect. This is a rare occasion of a Broadway show using the warning before both acts.
• The Will Ferrell play You're Welcome, America: A Final Night With George W. Bush starts with a parodical warning from (an impression of) Dick Cheney. Cheney tells the audience to leave their cell phones, pagers, and electronic devices on "so they can be swept up in our broad but semi-legal net of intelligence gathering."
• Tanz Der Vampire has the actor playing the local vampire Count von Krolock give the standard spiel in a soothing, polite voice, then changing into a seductive growl as he invites the audience to "sink with him into the night" (a line from the show) as the cue for the orchestra to burst into the Overture.
• The Light in the Piazza's spiel is completely in Italian, since the show is set in Italy, with the exception of some key words, such as "cell phones", "video recordings", "cough drops" and "unwrap now", which remain in English.
• Hamilton begins with King George making the announcement. This was even kept in the Disney+ presentation.
• Blue Man Group uses a dot-matrix sign to give various information to the audience, as the Blue Men are all Silent Bobs. One message before the show is that excessive talking or using the phone will trigger the patron's Ejection Seat.
• The Broadway production of The Boy From Oz had the announcer say that the Imperial Theater was installed with ejection seats, which would go off whenever someone's cell phone went off.
• The Broadway and Australian productions of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory had the actor playing Charlie remind the audience to turn off their phones and not use recording devices, before excitedly telling them "[they] can eat as much candy as [they] want."
• Oh, Hello on Broadway incorporates the rules about theatre etiquette into Gil and George's performance about 17 minutes in, although they naturally get all the rules twisted. They tell the audience they can take phone calls and text people, but "do it like your dad in temple" (looking back between the phone and the performance). They also say, in regards to coats and hats, the audience can "put their shit wherever they want," and that they can eat a full meal and unwrap their candy slowly and noisily.
• The 2021 revival of Company (Sondheim) has a recorded spiel from Patti LuPone, who plays Joanne, sternly telling audiences to turn their phones all the way off. This is playing off LuPone's reputation for calling out audience members who use their phones during the show.
• A Strange Loop has writer Michael R. Jackson bring up his own experience as an usher (which inspired the story) while imploring audience members to keep their phones off.

Movie Theatre Policy Trailers

• AMC has some really clever ones.
  • One involves Martin Scorsese directing a woman kissing her child good night because she talked through his last movie.
  • Another involves a Wuxia-type movie stopping in mid-fight because there's a cell phone ringing.
  • Another plays like the trailer for a nonexistent Disney animated flick about a bald eagle... at least until a ringtone distracts her when she's trying to save her father from vultures, and gets them both toasted by a volcano. A featherless, scorched-looking eagle appears at the end, giving the audience an affronted look.
  • Yet another features a man surrounded by a cloud of viral-video and Adobe Flash game animations, which groan in disappointment when he tells them to stay in the lobby while he's watching the movie. This was also shown in Regal Cinemas.
  • One more from years back seemed to depict Inuits forced to undertake a dangerous winter hunt to avoid starving, only for a ringtone from the audience to spook the herd of caribou they're stalking. The hunters desperately gesture for the owner to turn it off, but their intended game stampedes away in a panic.
  • Another one in the same vein depicts the trailer for a sports movie about a male cheerleader trying to gain his father's approval regarding his hobby, only to be distracted by a cellphone from the audience during the championship and cause the complex cheerleader pyramid he's part of to collapse.
  • And a fifth seems to be a serious drama depicting a skier attempting the most difficult stunt of his life... which is ruined when a ringtone distracts him.
  • There's another one where a romantic movie scene is playing, and the soundtrack switches to the sound of a ringing cell phone. It's followed by a statement that the only soundtrack which should be heard while a movie is playing in the theater is that of the movie.
  • In the 2010s, they introduced a series of CGI bumpers that paid tribute to specific genres (sci-fi, comedy, horror, family, romance, adventure, fantasy, drama, action, superhero and so on). They also did a bumper paying homage to various CGI-animated family films.
  • Prior to adopting the "Clip" mascot, AMC used a simple (and, to some, rather creepy) bumper where a lady shushed the audience.
  • From 1994 to the early 2000s, AMC had Clip accidentally tumbling in the theater with filmreels.
• Regal Cinemas (and also other NCM cinemas and Cinemark) has a warning/Sprint ad at the ticket booth when you purchase tickets that says, "Angry Birds have just entered a no-fly zone. Let's all turn off our phones so we can enjoy the movie together."
• AMC has also had licensed characters who have an upcoming film help out with their policies starting around The New '10s.
  • One of them, promoting 2011's The Muppets, has Miss Piggy and Kermit sitting in a theater, and being annoyed by other Muppets' use of cell phones, a microwave oven (Swedish Chef) and drums (Animal, of course) in the audience. View it here.
  • Another one, advertising the 3D rerelease of Finding Nemo, has all of the characters freaking out when the guy on the cell phone talks about having sushi for dinner. Then Bruce the Shark eats him.
  • The Lorax (2012) even had one.
• The now-defunct American multiplex chain General Cinema had some pretty memorable trailers. Their 1960s/70s trailer is perhaps the most iconic. The 1980s update is pretty slick too. Beginning in 1986, they went to Industrial Light & Magic, of all firms, for their trailers, and their work stuck around until GCC's 2000 bankruptcy, and subsequent acquisition by AMC. Their "space candy/clouds" combo is perhaps the most memorable, especially given the parody of it by Mystery Science Theater 3000 (see above) and its usage in an episode of Stranger Things.
• Cineplex in Canada usually runs one of several trailers asking viewers to "let everyone enjoy the show".
  • Around 2011, one bumper advertised their phone app where people could book tickets. It then asked viewers to turn off their phones once inside the theatre. This bumper was used as late as February 2019 but stopped airing when the COVID-19 Pandemic shut down theaters.
  • Trailers asking viewers to avoid being a "Tommy Texter", "Sally Soundtrack", "Suzie Seatkicker", or "Harvey Hogger" were in use throughout the 2010's. These can be seen here under "Animated Etiquette".
  • They also had one tying in with Moana, urging moviegoers to silence their shell phones.
  • They did one for Eternals that used the phrase "We'd be eternally grateful."
  • Another one tied in with La La Land, repurposing the clip where Sebastian and Mia are about to kiss in the movie theater only to be interrupted. In the actual film, rather than a cell phone, their intimate moment is cut short when the film they are watching breaks.
  • Cineplex showed other movie policy tie-in spots, including for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Grinch (2018) ("Don't Be a Grinch"), Bumblebee, Wonder Park, Missing Link, The Lion King (2019), and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
• British mobile phone company Orange has a long-running campaign that depicts real films or actors getting totally messed up by Orange sponsorship, usually centering the focus of the film on Orange or phones in general with no regard to the plot or setting - thereby combining reverse psychology with movie cross-promotion. For example, when The Muppets (2011) was about to release in the country, they had this ad where Pepe got Orange as an investor for the Muppets' in-universe comeback show, rebranding it as "The Orange Show" (complete with rewritten version of The Muppet Show's theme song), much to Kermit's disgust. In another one, the company forces a movie set in the wild west to include mobiles. The punchline to all of these ads is, "Don't let a mobile phone ruin your movie. Turn it off now".
• Drive-ins use a version that instructs audiences to keep vehicle headlights off, parking brakes engaged, and other necessary courtesies and safety rules in force. Older drive-ins with speakers that patrons set inside their car windows play these both before and after the show, to remind attendees to return these devices to their poles rather than drive off with them.
• If you go to a AMC/Cinemark/Regal (most of the United States) movie theater, you might see a campaign backed by Sprint reminding people to turn off their phones, with the tagline, "It takes a lot of phone calls to make a movie. And only one to ruin it."
• Similarly, Bell mobile (Canada) had modified versions of their commercials in Cineplex theatres that end with "Please turn your phones to silent". They ran for several years before they stopped airing in theatres in early 2019.
• Since late 2023, The Medicine Shoppe has taken up the mantle of airing a modified commercial before Cineplex movies. The commercial promises distraction-free service at the Medicine Shoppe, and fittingly enough, the theatrical version ends with a few title cards asking audience members not to let their phones distract others from enjoying the movie.
• The Alamo Drafthouse, a local theater chain centered in Austin, Texas (that has since expanded to other states as well), is famous for its strict "you talk or phone/text, we throw your ass out" policy. One of them actually achieved national recognition when it was featured on The Consumerist. Here's the censored version, here's the NSFW version.
  • The most infamous version of their warning stars late Texas Governor Ann Richards, in her last public appearance prior to her death.
  • And here's one made as a tie-in with Mad Max: Fury Road, featuring the Toecutter.
  • A gentler one was put out in 2022 featuring Marcel the Shell with Shoes On.
  • Their "Don't Talk" PSA series features a myriad of different celebrities and characters, typically tying in with an upcoming movie, all urging people to turn off their phones.
• No-Smoking variant: A memorable one was simply a very short clip from the movie RoboCop 2 where Robo surrounds a guy's head with bullet holes, he holsters his weapon, and as the cigarette drops from the terrified punter's mouth, Robo calmly says, "Thank you... for not smoking."
• The Movieplex chain had such a trailer featuring Mr. Bean smoking from a cigar, a pipe and a hookah, talking on a mobile phone, operating a vacuum cleaner and serving cocktails.
• National Amusements had a memorable movie theater policy trailer for their cinemas that was run from the mid-90s to the mid-2000s, set amongst neon lights and signage, where a shushing "NO TALKING PLEASE" sign appears in front of word bubbles with "blah blah," "chit chat," etc., along with "no smoking" and "please deposit trash."
• Before most films, the AFI Silver theater in Silver Spring, Maryland shows a short clip of famous directors discussing the theater and the institute. Lately they've added an outtake from the series featuring Edward Zwick's cell phone actually going off while filming his segment to serve as the "turn off your phones" reminder.
• Cinema screenings of the Doctor Who episode "The Day of the Doctor" had a specially filmed preshow warning where the Doctor's ally Strax (who is otherwise completely absent from the episode itself) lectures the audience on cinema etiquette in an in-universe manner ("Your feeble human minds are not so disciplined!"), showing that phoning (as it only opens up a communication channel to the enemy), talking (which hinders the consumption of food) and digital piracy ("The greatest of all war crimes!") will get you Strapped to an Operating Table. There is one human cinema etiquette he approves of at the end, though: eating popcorn... if only because popcorn is a living, sentient organism, fulfilling his sadism.
• GEICO had a TV commercial spoofing the phrase "happier than a camel on Wednesday," in which a camel would walk through an office celebrating "hump day." They would later make a similar trailer for theaters, in which the camel would celebrate "movie day" and ask one guy from the first commercial to turn off his cell phone.
  • They had another one also spoofing "Let's all go to the lobby".
• Before Capote, Moneyball, and Foxcatcher, Bennett Miller directed the Inconsiderate Cell Phone Man trailer that ran in the late '90s/early Noughts.
  • This was spoofed in this compilation of Fandango commercial parodies, as well as in this video made for Halloween Horror Nights.
• There was one based on I, Robot, featuring Sonny saying (paraphrased): "Welcome. Although I have nothing against the use of advanced technology, please turn off all mobile phones."
• M&M's had a policy trailer disguised as an action/comedy starring the Spokescandies. Red is in the middle of defusing a Time Bomb when the cellphone goes off, and he storms off in annoyance while the bomb is still going. This was later re-purposed into a broadcast commercial, where the punchline was changed to the narrator admitting the trailer was fake, followed by the bomb going off.
• Four words: "Movies don't interrupt you." More words: This series of commercials featured people going about their everyday lives and having to deal with intrusion by stock movie characters like pirates, zombies or action heroes.
• Japan nationwide has the "No More Eiga Dorobo" campaign warning potential bootleggers of the fines for illegally recording a film featuring a man with a video camera for a head popping and locking before being apprehended by a man with a police light for a head. Seriously. The dancing "Camera Man" became so popular that TV stations interviewed the dancer and Camera Man became the Japanese movie theater organization's mascot.
  • There's also a Detective Conan version, in which Conan tells Camera Man that it's illegal to film movies. He then reveals himself to be the Kaitou Kid before he delivers the warning about uploading illegal files online.
• A "no smoking" warning has been played in arthouse theaters featuring John Waters thoroughly enjoying a cigarette however informing patrons not to smoke in the theater. He then tells patrons to smoke anyway, just to give the ushers something to do.
• In the late 80s-early 90s, there was an animated policy trailer produced for independent theaters about taking crying babies to the lobby, set to an instrumental of "Rock-A-Bye-Baby". It begins with a couple sitting in a theater, with the caption "We all love babies, but..." Then the baby starts crying loudly. The couple runs out of the theater as another caption appeared reminding families with crying babies to bring them to the lobby.
• Cinemark had many of these involving their feline mascot, Front Row Joe.
  • Later on they had one featuring the characters of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
• In the late 90s Sesame Street had one preceding films shown at Loews Theatres (which was since eaten by AMC): "Don't Forget to Watch the Movie." It began like a normal policy trailer, but, in true Henson fashion, several joke rules were thrown into the mix, such as singing opera, surfing, and dancing with bears. Near the end, Elmo demands: "ENOUGH "DON'TS"!"
• When the Pokemon film Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai came out in Japan, there was a policy trailer with Meowth talking about said movie and getting interrupted by his cell phone. After shutting it off, he reminds the audience to shut off their own phones.
• A TV spot for Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers starts off as a normal TV spot for the movie with all the action and such, until Super Alien Hipporito's cellphone goes off and he answers it, interrupting the fight. The Ultramen are not amused and end up rebuking Hipporito for it, to which he does stop what he does and apologize, ending with a reminder to "protect the movie's showing" from such distractions. See it here and be amused.
• Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends has a similar promo featuring several Ultras - including Belial, the movie's Big Bad - in a theater, and Belial talking on his phone annoys several Ultra-patrons around him to "shush" him (complete with tiny Specium Rays coming out their fingers!)
• One of these trailers was created for Meet the Robinsons, which had Frankie and the Frogs singing a song about being disruptive in a movie theater to the tune of "I Heard It Through the Grapevine". Oddly enough, the footage from this trailer also showed up in a Spanish music video for the film.
• Disney released one that started as the DuckTales (2017) opening, only to come to a halt when someone's phone goes off. The cast blames Louie at first before he points at "that guy in the third row" as the culprit.
  • There was also a similar trailer using footage from Mickey and the Roadster Racers.
• In the late 2000s, Sprint used this policy trailer featuring the Farrelly brothers about a fictional movie called "Happy the Hedgehog" to address this problem.
• In the 90s, Pepsi produced an amusing policy trailer featuring dolls animated in a fashion similar to Action League NOW! demonstrating how you shouldn't talk in the theater (in which a human hand stuffs a paper bag over the woman talking) or smoke (a fire alarm goes off and the hand squirts a small fire hose at the two guys smoking cigarettes) or litter (a vacuum tube sucks up the woman throwing popcorn everywhere) or use cell phones or beepers in the theater (the hand places two alligator clips on the phone and electrocutes the woman using her large cell phone, complete with X-Ray Sparks). At the end, the moviegoer dolls that suffered remind the audience that "Considerate movie neighbors make good movie neighbors!" It also opens with an amusing "This Is a Work of Fiction" disclaimer...
  "Nothing in the following is real. The setting? Fake. The furniture? Fake. The blonde? Fake. It's a figment of someone's imagination that's so bogus, only the use of non-living objects could ever make it possible."
• There is a policy trailer for The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part. A Romanian-language version surfaced online months before the Blu-ray made an English version widely available.
• There was a Descendants PSA that had the characters texting, before Uma tells them that texting is not allowed at the movie theater.
• At NCM theaters, a policy trailer featuring the two animals from the Lunchables commercials has been shown before children's movies.
• For the 20th anniversary celebration of SpongeBob SquarePants, Screenvision, one of Viacom's major partners ^note  One theater owned by them, National Amusements, has held many Nickelodeon-themed events, including Nick Jr. At The Movies and a one-day screening of Hey Arnold! The Jungle Movie, made an exclusive policy trailer that's identical in tone to the Muppets one, but less insane. This short also played before the television premiere of The Spongebob Musical, with mild editing to refer to the musical rather than a movie (despite the fact that most people probably watched it in home, not in a theater).
• Yet another Disney policy trailer, which was shown in 2017 at both NCM and Screenvision theaters: "This is Star Butterfly. She's not from Earth, and it's her first time at the movies!"
• Aeon Cinemas uses the character Panpaka Pants for its trailers. In each of them, the titular character meets a character who comes from a different franchise that isn't following theater rules, and tries to correct them:
  • The 2016 version stars Crayon Shin-chan, who puts on his 3D glasses before the movie and then gets distracted when a lady's cellphone rings. Shin then compares this to eating natto, much to the shock of Panpaka. After being told to shut the cellphone off, Shin-chan asks for the lady's phone number.
  • The 2017 edition stars Lala-chan, the mascot for Japanese arcade chain Molly Fantasy, who wants to use a face mask to talk during the movies without getting caught.
• Japanese distributor United Cinemas Group uses this trailer using job-finding service Recruit's Pontan mascot.
• Emagine uses one of these that is a spoof of "Baby Shark". It starts with various people dancing to the song, before we see a man on his cellphone.
• In 2017 Sanrio created a live-action policy video, featuring Hello Kitty, Badtz-Maru, and My Melody that was shown at various movie theaters in the Philippines and Hong Kong.
• The Spongebob Movie Sponge On The Run skipped a theatrical release in the U.S. in favor of Paramount+, but did make its way to Canadian theaters. There, it had its own short policy trailer reminding the audience not to be disruptive, and - since this was still the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic - to keep a safe distance.
• The Prince Charles Cinema in London uses three:
  • The scene in which the Gremlins hijack the theater is played in full up to the close-up of a gremlin's face, pausing to remind the audience "Don't be a Gremlin", and, alongside the usual etiquette, "no destroying the cinema".
  • The scene in Scorsese's Cape Fear in which Max Cady sits in a theater laughing uncontrollaby and smoking a cigar is played more often than the above trailer, to advise patrons "Don't be like Max Cady".
  • In front of films classified 15 or 18 in the UK, John Waters delivers a pre-recorded message to audiences of "the most depraved and beautiful movie theatre in London", adding "please, turn off your cellphone, asshole!"
• British cinema chain Cineworld once had a policy trailer with a Captain Ersatz of Lara Croft discouraging someone from smoking, karate kicking a phone out of someone's hands and bashing two talking people together (the last one was eventually censored with a "No Talking" sign).

Theme Park Spiels

• At the Disney Theme Parks:
  • Muppet*Vision 3D has Sam the American Eagle deliver seating instructions at the end of the preshow video. Remember to walk all the way to the end of the aisle to take your seat — "Stopping in the middle is distinctly unpatriotic!" Gonzo helps out by showing us the consequences of wearing 3D glasses before you enter the theater.
  Sam: What are you doing?
  Gonzo: I'm showing how you could trip if you walk with your glasses on.
  Sam: Will you stop this foolishness at once?
  Gonzo: What kind of foolishness would you like to see?
  Sam: GET OUT!!
  • The Department of Redundancy Department kicks in at Honey, I Shrunk the Audience: "But please, do not put on the safety goggles [3D glasses] until you are safely seated safely inside the theater safely." Right before the film starts, an Imagination Institute attendant notes that there will be no smoking, cell phone use or — just as a stray laser hits the podium, causing it to smoke a bit — flash photography.
  • Right before the doors close on the Disneyland and Walt Disney World monorails, the speakers famously emit "Please stand clear of the doors. Por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas."
  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has an old prospector voice (courtesy of Dal McKennon) provide the safety spiel. "If any of you folks are wearin' hats or glasses, best remove 'em, 'CAUSE THIS HERE'S THE WILDEST RIDE IN THE WILDERNESS!"
  • The Haunted Mansion justifies the warning with the Ghost Host claiming that the spirits will only materialize if riders remain seated with their hands, arms, feet, and legs inside the ride at all times. "And no flash pictures, please; We spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights."
  • Star Tours had an airline safety video narrated by a human flight attendant, featuring various humans and alien species from the Star Wars franchise boarding the ship correctly. The second incarnation of the ride replaced the flight attendant with a droid voiced by Allison Janney, with the additional instruction to not put your flight glasses on until you're seated (since the new version of the ride incorporates 3D technology). In both videos, there's a gag where a kid takes a flash photo of a Wookiee and a Mon Calamari, startling them.
  • Superstar Limo told its passengers to "Please keep your hands, feet and egos in the limo at all times."
  • In the pre-show for Cranium Command at Epcot, General Knowledge would tell the audience "There will be no flash photography or video taping and no smoking in here!"
• At Universal Studios:
  • In Doctor Doom's Fearfall, "The Big Picture" is used to explain ride boarding procedures in the form of a cartoon PSA. It follows the perspective of a Latverian citizen simply known as Leopold, as he readies to prove his loyalty to Doom by riding the tower, but not without making a few mistakes along the way.
  • The Sorting Hat gives one in Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, though the guests are usually too busy taking pictures of the rather impressive animatronic to listen.
  • The safety spiel at Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts is given by a talking portrait at the goblin bank.
  • Another unique take on these occur in the pre-show for Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon, as Jimmy has Tariq Trotter (vocalist of The Roots) rap the ride's safety instructions, feeling that just reciting them normally would be too boring.
  • At The Simpsons Ride, as a cheeky reminder that people with certain health conditions can't ride, Grampa protests that he's fit enough to go on the new Krustyland ride before having a stroke, heart attack, etc. in succession, and is told to take care of Maggie, who didn't make the height requirement. (This sets up a Brick Joke in the actual ride.) As Sideshow Bob's treachery is revealed, he threatens us with the last thing we'll ever see before we board the ride/death trap: "A legally required safety video!" Aaaaaah! Said safety video is a suitably gory Itchy & Scratchy short.
  • In Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast, the queue line would show three separate videos of the ride's safety spiel being given by SpongeBob, Angelica from the Rugrats, and Donnie from The Wild Thornberrys, the latter comically having to be subtitled due to his gibberish speaking.
  • The Magic Mirror in Shrek 4D gives the spiel just before guests enter the main theater.
  Magic Mirror: As the auditorium opens, please enter in an orderly fashion, and take a seat as far over as possible. Do NOT wear your glasses until you are seated, unless you like falling over. Please do not eat, drink, smoke, or puke. All cell phone users will be FLOGGED. Flash photographers will be burned at the stake! You have been warned. Enjoy the show!
  • Normally, on the Studio Tour, taking pictures is encouraged, but when entering the 3D theater segments, your tour guide asks you to hold off on your photography, as not only is it distracting, but the stereoscopic nature of these features means your photos of the video will be worthless anyway.

Other

• Non-entertainment example: Most college instructors include a "set phones off/to vibrate" warning in their course syllabi, and insist on their deactivation during tests, if not all lectures. As smartphone functions become more diverse and potentially distracting, more teachers and professors are banning them from class altogether.
  • Similarly, examination invigilators are often obligated to give a spiel to those sitting warning them about the dangers of having mobile phones and electronic devices (as well as things such as notes pertaining to the examination) on their person, often asking the participants to hand in their phones to the invigilators before the exam starts. If discovered to have a mobile phone on them/have it make a sound during the exam, the student could be disqualified for at least that exam and, at worst, all the exams they take that season.
  • Warnings of this nature are included in instructions for taking the SA Ts and ACT exams. A Calculator Policy was also developed for the ACT exams in the interest of security and fairness.
  • Newer exam booklets for the New York State Regents Exam have a warning on the front saying that a student's score will be invalidated if he or she is found to be in possession of an electronic device at any point during the exam, "no matter how briefly".
• At the Discworld Convention Maskerade, the standard warning is "If you have a portable clacks tower, please set it to 'Mime'."
• Older Than They Think: When a scientist said that the 'pocket telephone' would be a future technology in 1919, a newspaper cartoon accurately pointed out that it might well go off in embarrassing situations such as at the theatre or at a wedding.
• In the Russian trivia team game "What? Where? When?", it is not rare for the first question in a game (or after a break) to be in some way connected to cell phones - with a reminder for the teams following.
• Zoos and aquaria often have "quiet please" and "no flash photography" warning signs at the entrances to any nocturnal exhibits, to discourage visitors from disturbing such animals' keen senses with loud talk or bright smartphone flashes. One of the funniest examples of such a sign is "Do Not Flash the Octopus".
• At Dans Le Noir, a high-end novelty restaurant franchise in which diners are served three-course dinners in pitch darkness, all cell phones and other potential light sources are confiscated outright for the duration of their meal. Patrons are given careful instructions about safe "dark dining" before they're led to their tables by the visually impaired or blindfolded wait staff.
• Most if not all churches have a "please silence your phone" reminder from a live speaker before the mass or sermon begins, but some churches take it a step further by having signs preceding the "no phones" warning with "You are in the house of God...", to remind you that your uninterrupted worship of the Almighty takes precedence over your friends' texts and meme-tagging. Some houses of worship print such warnings on their bulletins instead.
• Commercial airliners with in-seat screens often play short pre-flight cautionary videos to accompany their flight attendants' demonstrations of safety equipment. Reminders to deactivate cell phones or set them to "airplane mode" are typically a part of these precautionary video clips, due to concerns that they could interfere with the aircraft's navigational and communication systems^note That said, airlines are becoming increasingly welcoming of cellphone use onboard aircraft since there haven't been that many stories of, say, a plane being rerouted into a government no-fly zone or using the Earth as the world's largest dartboard because a passenger wanted to Snapchat with their friends; many major airlines offer in-flight Internet access over Wi-Fi, and some even offer cellular network service albeit as a roaming service (i.e. paying extra since you're using a cell network that's not associated with your provider)..
• Many Game Masters of tabletop RPGs have a "no phones" policy during their games, to ensure all players are paying attention and participating in the scenario. In this case, the "no phones" warning will be a verbal one... possibly enforced by wandering monsters, thrown dice, or paying for the snacks.
• At bar/pub trivia events, one of the rules the hosts will often read out before the game is that cell phones may not be used during play since players could use them to cheat, and that anyone caught using their phone during play (or cheating by any other means) will have their team's score for that round voided.
• Some performances of John Cage's "4'33" — a piece where the musicians simply do nothing for the duration of the piece — omit this warning, with the intent being that Everything Is an Instrument. Your friend snarking with you about when the actual music will start? Your phone going off because you forgot to silence it? That baby crying in one of the back rows? All part of the performance.

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