3. Evaluate audience focus in a company invitation.

The Century Aurora 16 theater in Colorado, where 12 people were killed and 58 injured, reopened a few months after the horrific shooting incident. To encourage people to return, the theater sent invitations to the victims’ families, for a “special evening of remembrance”

with a movie showing. The families didn’t appreciate the gesture. In a letter to the theater company, they called the invitation “disgusting” and “wholly offensive to the memory of our loved ones.” Coming just two days after Christmas, the invitation stung even worse for some families.

You can read the invitation and families’ letter at bit.ly/Zt3f4s. In small groups, discuss your perspective:

●● What’s your view of the theater’s invitation: a nice gesture, an insensitive ploy to recoup revenue, or something else?

●● What could have been a better approach for the theater?

●● How well does the families’ letter express their perspective? What suggestions, if any, do you have for a revision?

●● In the families’ letter, they say that the theater has refused to meet with them. How, if at all, does this influence your perspective of the invitation?