14 Big-Time Movie Marketing Blunders
At long last, your movie is complete. Hundreds of people have spent incalculable hours and untold millions crafting the perfect story, accounting for every pixel and every tenth of a second. All that’s left to do is hand your precious work of art off to some coked-up dorks in Sperrys to brainstorm LinkedIn activations. People are going to love it.
Bryan Mills Will Endorse You on LinkedIn
For Taken 3, poor Liam Neeson recorded a video in-character where he promises that “for one lucky applicant, I will find your LinkedIn profile, I will review it and I will record a video of myself endorsing your particular set of skills.” Sick.
The ‘Crimson Peak’ Trailer Pretended It Was a Horror
The movie is definitely weird, but it’s technically a “Gothic romance,” not a horror. Nonetheless, they packed all the spookiest stuff into the trailer, causing a ton of horror fans to show up and have an absolutely miserable time.
‘The Last Action Hero’: Advertising in Space
An organization called Space Advertising, Inc. was on a mission to get Hollywood ad dollars pouring into NASA, and this movie was supposed to be their big breakthrough. They struck a deal to have the logo (and the name SCHWARZENEGGER four times) painted onto an actual NASA rocket, which would orbit the Earth for four years. On top of that, people could call a 900 number and record a message that would live in the ship, for just $3.50 a pop. The launch was delayed, and by the time it went into space, the movie was already a flop.
‘Terminator Genisys’ Trailers Gave Away the Twist
The movie’s second trailer spoiled the one original element to this fifth entry of the franchise: the hero John Connor did a classic heel-turn and had become a Terminator himself.
‘The Grey’: I Was Told There Would Be Wolf Fights
The trailers and ads made a big deal about Liam Neeson squaring off against a pack of wild wolves with nothing but improvised weapons, which sounds pretty sick. And while the big wolf fight did technically, canonically happen, it was the cliffhanger: The movie cuts to black right as Neeson charges at his lupine nemesis.
‘Million Dollar Mystery’s Million Dollar Mystery Wasn’t Very Mysterious
Viewers were encouraged to write in where the protagonist had stashed his last $1 million, based on clues they gave in-film. They were either great or awful at dropping hints, because 356,306 people correctly guessed that it was in the nose of the Statue of Liberty. The film made just $989,000 at the box office, which didn’t even cover the $1 million payout they had to give to one lucky contestant.
Give Us Nothing, ‘Edge of Tomorrow’
The trailers were extremely vague about this actually quite novel sci-fi, allowing the name Tom Cruise do all the heavy lifting. When it totally bombed at the box office, they decided to rename it for home video release, hoping to spell out what viewers were in for. They turned its shampoo instruction-ass tagline into the title: Live. Die. Repeat.
‘Mission: Impossible III’ Cleared Out a Hospital
They hid 4,500 little music boxes at newspaper stands around Los Angeles, set to play the iconic Mission: Impossible theme song. They were mistaken for bombs, ultimately leading to hundreds of people being evacuated from a Veterans Affairs Medical Center. That costly and dangerous evac led to federal charges against Paramount.
Fox Paid a High School Valedictorian to Plug ‘I Love You, Beth Cooper’
Hamilton High School’s 2009 valedictorian got $1,800 — she talked them up from their initial pitch of $1,000 — to claim that the film’s trailer had inspired her to make her own confession of love. The studio had it recorded professionally, but in a style meant to feel home-movie-ish, plastered it on YouTube, garnering an astounding 2,000 views.
Sony’s Fake Movie Critic
Sony created a guy named David Manning who existed solely to spit out blurbs for their marketing material: Hollow Man was “one hell of a scary ride,” Heath Ledger was declared “this year’s hottest new star” after A Knight’s Tale came out, and most dubiously, The Animal was “another winner!”
Adult Swim’s LEDs Were Mistaken for IEDs
In a guerilla advertising campaign for Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters, they had an artist create and install some LED art pieces of Ignignokt the Mooninite around Boston. When people started reporting them as bombs, the Boston Police Department had a highway and parts of the city’s public transit system shut down while a bomb squad rolled in and detonated one of the devices.
‘The Mummy’: Someone Forgot to Add the Audio Back In
When you first start watching this movie’s first trailer, the near-silence appears to be done on purpose for dramatic effect. But by the time birds start crashing silently into the cockpit to the tune of slapstick-esque stock grunts, it’s clear something is off. Before you know it, Tom Cruise is emitting the same screams over and over in what sounds like his best Charlie Kelly impression. The studio quickly took the video down, but plenty of people had already copied it for posterity.
‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ Harassed Actual Sarah Marshalls
Universal bought billboard space and ran smear campaigns across New York City, with messages like “You DO look fat in those jeans Sarah Marshall.” Real-life Sarah Marshalls reported feeling confused and insulted, with one getting a call from an ex saying, “I don’t know who’s doing this, but it’s not me.”
‘The Lorax’ Teamed Up With the Combustion Engine
Universal allowed the freaking Lorax to be used in commercials for the Mazda CX-5 SUV, which wasn’t environmentally friendly in any way, just a big, gas-guzzling car. Universal’s President of Partnerships assured the public the car is “a really good choice for consumers to make who may not have the luxury or the money to buy electric or buy hybrid,” which is famously the main takeaway of the book.
