Obnoxious 'Marley & Me' Viral Campaign

Erik: You know me. I'm all for cynicism. But I really struggle to believe that this is the best way that Fox could see to promote their practically huggable holiday flick. The cute dog seems to sell itself well enough -- comments like that strike more of a "Twilight spoilers on NYC subway" tone to me, just for the west coast.

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I didn't read the book, and I won't see the movie, because the dog dies at the end. I have enough of that in real life at the moment, unfortunately. So I think these might turn a lot of people off who thought it would be just a fun, quirky comedy about dogs and humans.

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The real spoiler is that, as it turns out, all dogs *don't* go to heaven.

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I think it's a smart move to bring in a lot of people who would otherwise be skeptical about seeing this movie. I myself was considering seeing it with the wife, then I figured maybe the dog dies and I wouldn't want to put myself through that, but now that I know it's gonna die, I can play my emotions accordingly.

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You'd have to be in a semi-vegetative state not to predict the dog's eventual death in a shmaltzfest like M&M. But yes, considering the email and all, this has to be a sad little viral campaign.

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When I was told to read the book Marley & Me last year while on a vacation in St. Martin, I told my friends I would rather write a book about my yellow lab - and so I did..... in four days.
My book is called "Milli & Me". It's a real stupid book that anyone who has a dog will like. It's not literature- but a great bathroom book. Plus my MIlli is still alive- so she is available for book signings.

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Here's a really cynical possibility: They screened the movie in front of test audiences and found that people, especially those who hadn't read the book, were too sad at the end to recommend it to their friends. So the studio decided to defeat that negative buzz by announcing that the dog dies as a way of desensitizing people or helping them get their guard up. Imagine the backlash if parents didn't know about the ending and they took their kids... No studio wants to endure that. So instead they use word of mouth "viral" tactics to inform their public in an indirect way.

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ha, i ruined the ending for myself by looking at the tiny pictures.

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There's NO class left in America. Pretty much a very LOW road in terms of marketing a film. Stunningly insulting!

Chuck
http://blog.entertainmenttodayandbeyond.com/

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Oh, after reading all these comments I didn't lose a desire to watch the film. Unfortunatelly have no opportunity to go to the cinema, thus looked for this film at http://rapidpedia.com/ but could not find. Perhaps, someone will be able to help me with another source? Thanks a lot!

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