Filmed Beside It

Nobody has to claim an endorsement to collect one. The mechanism is proximity, and it is almost impossible to object to. A film crew shoots outside the building where the meeting is held. A promotional video is recorded in the hall an hour before the chairs go out. A photograph is taken at the door, with the sign in shot. No word is spoken about A.A. and none needs to be — the viewer supplies the connection, which is the entire reason the location was chosen. What has happened is that an outside body has borrowed the visual credibility of a Fellowship that has no mechanism for lending it and no committee that could have refused. The long form's phrase (Big Book, p. 565) is "Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity," and the difficulty here is that nothing personal was broken. A building was filmed. But the building is where the anonymity lives, and after that footage runs, everyone who walks in has been seen walking in.