This Daily Billboard blog post makes a good point about one thing that's wrong with the marketing for the film "John Carter" — that they didn't include the complete title, "John Carter of Mars," which might confuse people not familiar with the story of the literary work, or give them any inkling what it might be about.
I agree with this. I have no idea who John Carter is. But if they weren't going to use the complete title — how they could they have improved their marketing approach to make up for this gap?
Easy. Showcase the film's hottest asset: Taylor Kitsch.
THIS IS NOT ORGANIC CHEMISTRY PEOPLE. YOU HAVE ONE OF THE HOTTEST GUYS ON PLANET EARTH — AND YOU DON'T PLASTER HIS BEAUTIFUL FRICKIN FACE AND BODY ALL OVER THE FILM'S MARKETING MATERIAL??!?! WHO CARES ABOUT THE DAMN ALIENS AND ANIMALS!!
That is all.
P.S. No animals or aliens were harmed during the writing of this blog post.
P.P.S. I love "Friday Night Lights" — watch the first episode on Netflix right now if you haven't seen it.
[UPDATE: Okay, so my friend said that she probably wouldn't be interested in seeing the film if it was called "John Carter of Mars" because she's not into sci-fi, etc. So maybe that's what they were thinking when they went with just "John Carter." But then play up the hot factor! Don't get me wrong, I love this alien below (but I also like sci-fi). But none of the marketing I've seen showcases Taylor Kitsch, he's always in the background or in some kind of shadow. Play to a variety of audiences. Okay, that is seriously all.]
Disney was concerned about getting women to go see this when they changed the title. Which makes sense since. Women don't like sci-fi, no woman went to see Avatar as reflected in it's meager box office receipts :P
ReplyDeleteRight my point exactly — they were concerned about women going to see it and they didn't pump up the sex appeal in the marketing campaign??? Ridiculous.—LP
ReplyDeleteThat's right, Remember the poster for Thor? Just Chris Hemsworth's face, with a line of copy saying "God of Thunder." Sexy to women, yet still appealing to men. Did Disney think they could pretend it wasn't a sci-fi movie? Because I saw that thing (It's pretty good btw), and there was literally every sci-fi thing ever in that movie, space-ships, monsters, green people with 4 arms, and even magic. It's not like women wouldn't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the image you'd have liked them to use on the poster :P
ReplyDeletehttp://www.beyondhollywood.com/uploads/2011/05/Taylor-Kitsch-in-John-Carter-2012-Movie-Image-2.jpg