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Over Marketed
I’ve been looking for an excuse to post an image of this poster since I first saw it over on Daniel Grey’s Binky blog [binkythedoormat.wordpress.com]. It’s possibly one of the best film posters that’s come along in some time. Even the copy is spot on (“You must admit you bought this on yourself”), giving the viewer an impression of the film without explicitly stating anything about the plot or what it might contain apart from the facts that it’s sinister and Naomi Watts gets quite upset (having been too wary to see the original Funny Games [iMDB], I’m guessing this is a bit of an understatement). Crew Creative [crewcreative.com] have been a bit clever too in crafting an intelligently designed poster that still puts the big name star up front, ticking off the first rule of modern movie marketing.
Now here’s the rub. Apparently, according to the bright sparks marketing Funny Games in the U.K., British audiences aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the sinister intrigue that permeates in this poster. They have issued a new version based on the image in the poster shown at the bottom of this post (click to enlarge)… only with vivid red blood instead of black, a clunky over emphasised line of copy and a kind of scattershot typography that attempts to give the star names, copyline and film title equal billing (though the film title is in red, natch).
Everyone is saying it. Film posters are shite these days. This special U.K. revision of the Funny Games poster exemplifies the reason why. It’s ‘over-marketed’. The film industry has reached a point where the type of marketing they use has bottomed out and become a hollow ’style’ which they apply liberally to most of their output. In an attempt to ‘catch all’ they have missed to point of targeting distinctive markets and instead constantly aim for the Lowest Common Denominator. So, instead of a poster that will intrigue, unsettle and make you want to seek it out to find out more about this film you get a poster that condescends to all, bar people with the most base of intelligence who are happy to have culture prescribed to them rather than trying to work out things for themselves, and although we often like to believe otherwise, surely this is actually targeting the minority.
Author: Boicozine / Date: March 9th, 2008
Categories: Cinema, Graphic Design, Rants /