Hollywood studio for promoting a violent movie

I once wrote a column vilifying a major Hollywood studio for promoting a violent movie about snuff films as a delightful, feel-good movie.

A year later, I was at a cocktail party, and a publicist from that same studio introduced me to a man in an expensive suit.

The man looked a little confused, and the person who had introduced us encouraged him to look at me very carefully.

After a few seconds, the man’s eyes opened wide and he smiled.

“You’re the guy from my wall,” he said.

Now I was confused.

He handed me his business card, which identified him as the studio’s worldwide president of marketing.

I was impressed, but still confused.

He explained that he had a framed copy of one of my columns on his wall. He said he was very excited to finally meet me.

I thanked him, but then asked which column he had framed.

It was the column that attacked him. As the head of worldwide marketing, he personally approved the upbeat campaign on that downbeat film.

I hate these moments. Columnists prefer never to meet the people they attack. That’s the fun of being a columnist.

My face turned red, and I apologized. I wasn’t sorry about what I had written, but I was so embarrassed by the awkward moment that the apology was the first thing that came out of my mouth.

But he laughed, and clutched my shoulder in a friendly way.

“Don’t apologize,” he insisted. “I loved that column.”

“Are we talking about the same column?” I asked. “The one in which I called you the scum of the Earth?”

“Yes, the same column,” he said with a smile.

“How could you have liked it?” I asked incredulously.

“You were complimenting us,” he said. “You were saying that we did our job.”

“I did?”

“Yes, we saw it as a pat on the back for a job well done.”

I learned a lot about movie marketing that night.

And that brings me to “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Marley & Me.”

I loved the former when it was released in 2008, but didn’t care for the latter.

In 2009, both movies are annoying me.

Well, not so much the movies themselves, but the marketing of the movies.

If you’ve watched any television in the last few weeks, you probably are well aware that the DVDs of those popular movies were available on March 31. TV has been inundated with commercials for the DVDs, which is understandable because the home video market is extremely profitable.

But I have a problem with how they are selling these movies.

Both films are being sold as feel-good romps, and that is a little misleading.

“Slumdog Millionaire” is a terrific movie, worthy of its best picture Oscar, but it is at times brutal, depressing and shocking. The commercials for the DVD focuses on a Bollywood-type dance number that comes at the end of the movie. And, when I say the end of the movie, I mean after the story has concluded. It was a credit-rolling homage to Indian musicals, but it had nothing in common with the tone of the movie.

If you rent or buy this DVD with the idea that you and the family are going to dance around your living room, you are in for a big surprise.

As I said, it is a movie that should be seen, but understand what you’re getting. Why doesn’t the concept of truth in advertising apply to movie marketing?

“Marley & Me” had a despicably dishonest promotional campaign when it was released last year, and I wasn’t alone in pointing that out. I would have thought that the criticism the studio received at the time would have altered the subsequent DVD campaign, but I clearly underestimated the studio’s marketing department.

They are promoting “Marley & Me” as a harmless family film about an adorable puppy, and you should be forewarned before you watch this film with your young children that it doesn’t remain a harmless family film about a puppy.

Does “Bambi” ring a bell? How about “The Yearling?” “Old Yeller”? Never trust movies about animals.

One wonders how these marketing people would have promoted “The Silence of the Lambs?”

Would we have seen shots of Jodie Foster running through the woods at the FBI training facility while a disembodied voice says: “Run, don’t walk to see the movie that has critics raving … bring your appetite for fava beans and a nice Chianti.”

Imagine what these marketers would have done with “Titanic.”

We’d see scenes of Jack and Rose frolicking in the ship’s dining room while an announcer intones “Join these young people on the romantic cruise of a lifetime.”

And don’t even get me started on “No Country for Old Men.” Javier Bardem’s haircut doesn’t make it a comedy.

This entry was posted on Friday, April 10th, 2009 at 3:29 pm and is filed under Singer, Song. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.