Films and TV shows have a narrow window to make their presence known to the viewing public. A lack of press can doom a production, especially in an era when studios and network execs refuse to take a risk on any IP without an existing brand footprint. Blanketing TV and the internet is but one way to do so, but why settle for a boring ad when you can reach people in a more innovative and excruciating style?
In the 2020s, PR reached the next level in the stage of evolution, going from simple trolling to outright interfering with your daily commute. A subdued, quiet side banner on a website will not do when you can stage a public spectacle. Because isn’t it worth missing your stop to hear yet another reminder thatIndiana Jones 5exists?
We might already be at the breaking point when the scandals produced from the movie and TV series adsyield more lasting cultural impactthan the art itself. The legend of the giant plastic Eddie Murphy head veering through traffic lives in our hearts long after we forgot aboutMeet Dave.
Public transportation in New York is already a stress-inducing nightmare for commuters. The weird smell in the D-Train was the least of their worries. First, it was the Nazi war emblems scrawled across the subway cars in anticipation ofTheMan in the High Castle, an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick novel about an alternative future where the Axis Powers prevailed in WWII. Who doesn’t love to start their morning withfascist hate symbols surrounding themwherever they look?
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Fun and Games
When does a marketing gimmick go from genius to public menace? It’s hard to know, but back when the filmSnakes on a Planedebuted in 2006, it was pulling out all the stops to bombard the planet with press. One such tool was a phone service to pester your friends into viewing the film. Using Samuel L. Jackson’s voice, people could request anautomated Sam Jacksonto call up any number. The robo-voice would then berate them. Only fitting, as the film itself was a kind of prank. But you have to imagine the text-to-speech technology was probably used to annoy complete strangers too based on whom the movie was advertised toward: teenage boys.
And if a robot Jules Winnfield impression threatening you wasn’t surreal enough, just imagine the confusion people suffered when Joaquin Phoenix tried out his Andy Kaufman bit while secretly filming the pseudo-docudramaI’m Not There. Growing out a beard, chewing gum, and staring blankly out into space during his David Letterman interview, the actor did more to annoy the populace than encourage them to see his new movie. The brainchild of Casey Affleck,I’m Not Thereis today only remembered for this one cringe-worthy piece of publicity.
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It was a hoax, of course, Phoenix did not ever intend on retiring from acting, though after his performance art piece many people would have been happy if he did. “I never intended to trick anybody,” Affleck told theNew York Times.“The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind.” The same can’t be said for Phoenix.
That was minimally invasive compared to other ad schemes. Pushing their new would-be blockbusterMission Impossible III, Paramount Pictures rigged up 4,500 local Los Angeles newspaper machines to play theMission Impossiblejingle every time someone opened one up to take a paper. That idea was irksome in itself, however, the sight of an unusual red device with wires hooked up to it scared the crap out of pedestrians, who called the bomb squad. A neighborhood was cordoned off, a hospital evacuated, as the police detonated an audio player mistaken for an IED. The campaign forced Paramount to shell out $75,000 in restitution for their recklessness.
The Death of the Movie Billboard?
Repercussions were inevitable. As we’ve seen, it’s a fine line to walk between touting your action blockbuster and traumatizing the local populace. Could it be better to remove ads altogether? The city of L.A thought so when they protested a billboard for the 1992 Harrison Ford filmPatriot Games, fearing it would encourage gang violence. The argument in favor of free speech usually wins out over those of fragile sensibilities, even if they mean well.
Another such incident popped up in 2007 when the horror filmCaptivitygarnered a fair bit of backlash for its billboards that featured actress Elisha Cuthbert in various states of torture, terrifying children and triggering some women, with the words “Abduction, Confinement, Torture, Termination” stamped on the top. “For any woman, it’s flat out abusive to be forced to look at while we’re trying to drive in this city,” one woman told theLA Times.
Very soon we might see the end of giant movie billboards and old-school search lights all together. The UK group Adfree Cities denouncing house-sized adverts as not just sources of light pollution but also “sight pollution.” Several U.S. states ban billboards outright, as do parts of Europe and South America. Eventually, the same might apply to some municipalities of the UK, so reported the BBC in 2022.
