Monday Morning Poll: When Movie Marketing Goes Too Far
Filed under: Fandom, DIY/Filmmaking, Tom Cruise, Movie Marketing
This past weekend, some of us in New York City were lucky enough to watch every major news station cover Tom Cruise criss-crossing the city via helicopter, speed-boat, taxi cab, subway and sports car in order to promote his film, Mission: Impossible 3. Every channel I could click to provided me with a different shot of Tom; Tom on top of a car, Tom driving a boat, Tom on top of a fire truck hugging a FDNY official, Tom in Harlem pretending to be black and, my personal favorite, Tom attempting to convince us he's a normal human being.
And when I wasn't watching television, they were talking about it on the radio. One station was commenting on the fact that someone on the set of MI: 3 had clocked Tom running 17mph. Yes, during an interview, Mr. Cruise actually bragged he can run 17mph. At that moment, all I could think about was the poor schmuck given a speed gun and told to please follow Tom Cruise as he runs down the street. Um, sorry, but when the hell did Tom Cruise become an automobile?
Why, when the town is literally plastered in MI:3 advertisements (Yes, there is a banner hanging across the entire length of Madison Square Garden), do they insist on bombarding us with MORE promotional nonsense? Honestly, I don't want to see the movie anymore. I'm sour. That's right, I'm so sick of seeing Tom Cruise and hearing about the super-human moron that I just can't shell out the money to sit and watch his ass for another two and a half hours.
So, I ask you: Is movie marketing getting out of control? And, are you getting to a point where the extreme promotion of a film will actually prevent you from seeing it?









Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-08-2006 @ 9:15AM
tim said...
bah, you have no sweet tooth. what do you know?
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5-08-2006 @ 9:31AM
JT said...
I guess the "There's no such thing as bad publicity" took a hit. I'm really curious on how Paramount will spin this thing... Piracy maybe?
Anyway, what we witness here, IMHO, is just an audience who is fed-up with a dude who managed to remain likeable for 20 years. In talk shows, he showed his true colors, his lack of humor, and his disconnect from the world. And now, he is not a person average people look up to anymore... Don't worry, someone will replace him. Studios need big stars, just not too crazy.
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5-08-2006 @ 10:46AM
Anonymous Coward said...
I will admit that over-saturation of the marketing makes another 2 hours of Tom a little hard bear. I don't have much interest in the movie itself, but I would show up to see just about anything with Fishbourne and Hoffman in it. I've never had a problem with Cruise "as an actor" so his personality is not preventing me from seeing the movie. I liked the first two of the franchise. So, it seems like something that would be right up my alley.
But the over-marketing is definitely making the movie hard to stomach. Between irritating 'roll over' ads on every major page I go to, talking newspaper dispensers (in LA apparently), huge banners everywhere, advertising plastering every city in the US.
Between the uber-hype and "movie experience" I'm just not that excited about blowing $11 for the right to pay $20 for a snack and to sit in an uncomfortable seat with a theater full of morons who don't know where the 'power' button is on their cell phones and watch 30 minutes of previews for movies I'll have no interest in and be reminded, for the 80th time, that I'm a criminal even though I'm digesting the content in the way I'm supposed to.
Sorry, I'll just wait and see it on Netflix. I'll save my $50 and get $1 worth of popcorn and soda at home.
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5-08-2006 @ 10:56AM
Myron said...
FoodTV had a show on this weekend about the CATERING for MI 3. The sad truth is, I'm now more interested in seeing the movie.
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5-08-2006 @ 12:25PM
joelarue said...
you know though, i really think part of this movies bad performance has a lot to do with the trailer just not being that exciting. for me, i was much more excited to about jj abrams behind the camera and philip seymore hoffman playing the bad guy than i was about any of the actual footage i saw. the larger popcorn munching audience is going to respond first and foremost to the quality of the trailer.
yeah, there was a lot of promotion., but not enough to turn me against it. for me, and probably anyone who reads this site - there's an understanding that the forces behind promotion are an entirely separate entity from the creative forces behind the actual film.
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5-08-2006 @ 1:25PM
Finished.Law.School said...
I think that the studio put so much effort into promoting this film because they know that Cruise is a complete nutter. They wanted to try and promote the film over Cruise being a wacko.
It is too bad for the studio that this was all a waste considernig that all of the public appearances by Cruise do nothing aside from reiterate the fact that he is out of his fucking mind and part of a cult filled with crazies called scientology.
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5-08-2006 @ 1:45PM
Travon Boykins said...
Well, i think it's a double edge sword. Sure, bombarding people with images and commercials every few minutes (I can't remember how many ads I saw while watching the Spurs-Mavs game) will get them excited and ripe for watching.
Then again, for people like me who answered the Siren's song and found the whole movie a bore (save that one scene with Tom Cruise running down that chinese canal screaming like he was on crack...that was pretty funny), seeing a ad every 15 minutes annoyed me. But, given that Cruise is going from bat shit crazy to something else entirely and this is his vanity project/look how small my penis is, it is to be expected. I am just wondering how the studio is looking at this weekend's result.
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5-08-2006 @ 2:09PM
The Moviequill said...
they should mail out random two for one movie passes or offer a discount off a direct web site set up and forget the mass overhyped media approach
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5-08-2006 @ 2:38PM
RuDee said...
I am totally sick of TC being shoved in my face at every turn. Why in the world would that make me want to shell out $10.00 for more. Let's see...he started a relationship to promote one movie, had a baby to promote another, what's next...(You fill in the blank)
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5-08-2006 @ 10:08PM
DJ Erickson said...
That's right, I'm so sick of seeing Tom Cruise and hearing about the super-human moron that I just can't shell out the money to sit and watch his ass for another two and a half hours.
So, I ask you: Is movie marketing getting out of control?
Erik, you're being glib. Please stop.
I guess the "There's no such thing as bad publicity" took a hit. I'm really curious on how Paramount will spin this thing... Piracy maybe?
I say Paramount should blame the body thetans -- they're infecting people's minds and turning them against poor Tom Cruise.
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5-08-2006 @ 10:48PM
Edmond said...
Yeah the movie marketing for MI3 is a bit extreme but it is stomachable for me because I liked the first and the second one was bareable.
But for me upon reading the title for this post my first thought and cringe were of that old blockbuster Titanic. I was young when it came out but there was so much word of mouth, interview this, poster that, THE CELINE SONG PLAYING 2x a hour, news cheering along its box office performance, and other sensory bombardments that I just flat boycotted the movie. I'm sure it wasn't as bad as I remembered it but sometime a films popularity drives others away.
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5-09-2006 @ 4:15AM
jb3 said...
Great article. I think he was at his brilliant peak in "Born on the Fourth of July", but I've just been way too saturated by him since then. Sorry, but I just can't bear to sit through one more TC film. I never saw WOTR, either, for the same reason...
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5-09-2006 @ 11:20AM
mojonator said...
Sony may have hyped MI:3 more than usual to overcome Cruise's nutty image of late, but the reasoning extends beyond just Tommy's dementia. Last year, Sony hung their collective summer movie hat on Deuce Bigalow 2 a year after Spidey2; they need a monster year to avoid serious financial trouble, because MI:3 and Da Vinci were expensive to make and they have not exactly had a string of hits in recent memory. Sony needs a big splash, and they seem to believe that more is more.
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5-09-2006 @ 11:36AM
Eric D L said...
Tom who?
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5-09-2006 @ 1:50PM
Jake Murdoc said...
With the exception of a few, most sound like they feel bad about not attending the cinima as it exists now. Have been to a movie theater 1 time in 15yrs. Besides the terrible movies and usually unbearble surround sound and whatever else has already been mentioned ,I think most are feelin the same thing. There's no surprise. According to the brains in Hollywood the viewing public has to be saturated with "the movie we've all been waiting for"..." it's finally here, America has been waiting for the most talked about release of the year ". When I actually view a movie it's usually 1-3 yrs old already and it's either terrible , OK , and in few cases really well done, and what it's supposed to be, entertaining and maybe thought provoking. It doesn't have to be both. When I do see the particular movie it is always an event for me and I do enjoy movies like anyone else. I just want to preserve the magic I felt the 1st time I went to a theater...in America that feeling has long since vanished. We are supposed to and, have been made to celebrate the weekend tally of the millions made on an opening. I did here the War of the worlds was good.....but don't actually know anyone thats seen it. Try not suporting this and enjoy it on your own terms. For a small fraction of the cost and huge dividends of enjoyment when the real good 1 comes along .
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5-10-2006 @ 2:41AM
Kathy said...
I personally have no interest in seeing this movie. I've never really had anything against TC as an actor, but lately I've had complete burn-out, especially with his insane antics and "Holier-than-thou" attitude in disputes. I've just found that I can't stomach any more of him and find the promotional overload of the movie to be the icing on the cake. Nope, I won't even bother watching it on PPV.
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5-10-2006 @ 3:07AM
4got10one said...
Tom Cruise ticked off a huge portion of his adolescent adrenaline rush audience by mugging South Park. His core audience didn't care about his previous antics, but he bullied the wrong people and revealed monstrous insecurity when he got the powers-that-be to silence South Park's irreverent satire. Tom Cruise didn't finish high school, and that flashy smile no longer hides his ignorance or his hubris. His biography should be moved from the movie star shelf to the case studies on narcissism and megalomania.
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5-10-2006 @ 3:14AM
dragonfly said...
As I have clients in the journalism field, I am privy to some pretty interesting details regarding the journalism industry. There is a huge push to depopularize religion in general, not just Scientology, for one. For if one has no soul, and there is no god, then there is only government.
Another is that drug company owners are major sponsors to the big news corps. It doesn't take a genius to put two-and-two together and come to the conclusion that pharmaceutical sponsors pay to have Tom Cruise blasted in the media, and have been working hard to ruin his image since he spoke out against their precious depression meds. It appears he cost them untold millions. I say good for him. I wish more celebrities would speak out against the legal drug mafia.
I blame the media - not Tom Cruise.
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5-10-2006 @ 10:24AM
ispsec said...
When did movie stars think they could be anything but movie stars? I guess when their illusion becomes real. I am around the illusionary Hollywood machine and I can say that if we took anybody and put the marketing machine behind them, they could be a star. It is nothing more then great marketing. Tom is marketing gone wild. Bad business.
You asked is there ever too much? YES!
Tom has forgot he is a puppet. All actors are puppets. Their job is to entertain and then move to the next project. Where they go wrong is when they think people really care what they think when they are dictating to everyone how to live. Oprah Winfrey is one of the biggest joke. Here is a perfect example. Oprah Winfrey has done a TV show called.. Hell I forgot the name already. It is some show when all her friends show up and celebrate how wonderful they all are. Have you grasp how pathetic this all is?
So you are going to put a bunch of millionaires in one room and celebrate how rich and wonderful they are? Great concept.. Let's sell it!! Then they invite the public via TV to watch how important they think they are. What makes Oprah Winfrey important is money. The entertainment industry would not give a rats ass who Oprah Winfrey was if she did not have money. Same with Tom.
How shallow is Oprah Winfrey? Well she went down New Orleans and I did not see her bring hundreds back to her house to live for a while. I saw normal everyday people who care bring family after family into their homes (when they had no more room). Simple people who make under $50,000 a year truly helping people and Oprah Winfrey just making money and throwing money at the problem. THEY NEEDED A PLACE TO SLEEP. OPEN YOUR MANSON UP AND BE A HUMAN BEING. I point out Oprah Winfrey because she is part of the marketing wheel. Look at her book club pointing people to a book that was made up. She marketed a book to the public that was not even real. That was bad business. She apologize because she needed to make sure her ratings did not suffer. Good business.
Just entertain. Shut up and do your job. These people make millions and then think the machine that got them their gives them the platform to dictate to all how they should live. There are so many others that have so much more intelligent things to say, yet they do not have a platform to do it with.
To all headaches I have on a daily basis. Dance puppets dance. All you actors are just puppets on strings. Do your jobs and shut up for once.
As for Tom.. Well I will skip the movie. I will wait for HBO and then TIVO it. I need a break from an actor named Tom Cruise.
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5-10-2006 @ 11:27AM
dragonfly said...
When celebrities use their stardom to forward a good cause I support them. Like it or not in the REAL world (which you seem to not be in), we all have an opinion on subjects that affect our lives whether or not we are expert. We HAVE to. When moms on depression meds start drowning their children, and kids on Ritalin come in and shoot up their schools, you tend to sit up and take notice. Next time it could be your mom, your neighbor or your kid's school. These are things that directly affect everyone's lives and things that big pharma/psychiatry would rather we all not know their involvement in. I'm glad Tom Cruise speaks out about such things. The general public needs to know. I wish he would do so more often. In fact, I hope he makes a movie about it...:)
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