Has Sony's '2012' Marketing Campaign Gone Too Far?
Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Newsstand
Take THAT Roland Emmerich! The problem with these end-of-the-world movies, like 2012, is that when they come out people sometimes freak because they actually believe the world is coming to an end. The marketing strategy for the upcoming Roland Emmerich film doesn't help either, since it seems the studio wants people to believe the 2012 Mayan prophecy -- so much so that they've gone and created a whole slew of fake websites and Facebook pages tied to the film and tied to the Mayan legend. Of course, this sort of fluff may help the film's box office take when it hits theaters, but it certainly doesn't help the folks at NASA who've been fielding thousands of emails from people who, thanks to the movie and its marketing plan, think the world is ending in 2012.Says NASA scientist David Morrison, "I don't have anything against the movie. It's the way it's been marketed and the way it exploits people's fears." To dispute some of these claims, Morrison has taken to a new online column where he's been answering questions about 2012 and the mysterious planet Nibiru.
So what does he really think about the Mayan calendar ending on that specific date in 2012? In his column, Morrison says: "Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use ...
Read the rest over at SciFi Squad
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
10-23-2009 @ 1:52PM
Comcast77 said...
Has Sony's '2012' Marketing Campaign Gone Too Far?
^^^
Yes. i will not go see this movie, i know a lot of PPL who feel the same as i. right now (2009) is not the time for this movie, people are on the edge enough.
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10-26-2009 @ 1:26PM
CelluliteQueen said...
I cannot WAIT to see the movie "2012"!! I hope it was better than PARANORMAL ACTIVITY which was all hype and not scary AT ALL. I'm also hoping THE FOURTH KIND can live up it ITS hype as well! Keep in mind - these are MOVIES, and NOT reality, folks! Lighten up! Be ENTERTAINED! http://www.CelluliteQueen.com
10-23-2009 @ 2:12PM
Felipe Rodriguez said...
it's only a movie, why get so upset?
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10-23-2009 @ 4:12PM
Liam said...
Oh my God! I'm going to Walgreens right now and stoke up on gummi bears, m&m's, twizzlers and snickers bars. The end of the world is nigh! At least I'll die happy.
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10-26-2009 @ 4:07PM
Ro said...
Don't forget the twinkies
10-23-2009 @ 4:47PM
Wendy said...
I dislike that there are so many misconceptions about the Mayan calendar and what 2012 actually means to the Mayan people. I read a book over the summer that was written at the request of the Mayan elders - the first to actually be sanctioned by the elders - that hopes to spread the knowledge that they're not actually predicting the end of the world, but the end of an age in their calendar.
The whole catastrophe theme probably comes from their prophecy that this new age will either mark the beginning of a positive new time in humanity's treatment and respect for the earth, or enough won't be done and earth will suffer as a cause. Really it's just stuff we already knew, but the Mayans predicted it thousands of years ago.
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10-26-2009 @ 1:04PM
JustinOpinion said...
Um., Wendy? What Mayan elders? THEY'RE FREAKEN' EXTINCT!!!!!!! Nothng means ANYTHING to them anymore!!!! They don't FREAKEN' EXIST!!!!! DUMB A**!!!
10-26-2009 @ 1:38PM
lokismommy1 said...
Justin....go back to school. The decendants of the Mayans are alive. You 'white-eyes' have not killed all of us yet.
10-23-2009 @ 4:49PM
MarkH said...
I have no sympathy for anyone stupid enough to believe the world will end in 2012, so in that sense no, the ads haven't gone too far; you can't protect idiots from themselves.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:35PM
Kevin said...
Agreed.
10-26-2009 @ 9:35AM
Mike said...
Unfortunately, sometimes we can't protect US from the idiots, either. And, in this country, the idiots get to vote, too. That's nothing to do with current or past presidents - just a general comment on the downside of democracy - not that I'd want any other kind of 'cracy. My point is that the people who actually believe they have 3 years left also get to vote next year. . . Scary.
10-26-2009 @ 9:17AM
C.A. said...
Nailed it.
10-26-2009 @ 12:47PM
Carol said...
I am with you. I believe the end of the world is in God's hands.
10-23-2009 @ 4:49PM
Wendy said...
Oh, I'm not advertising or anything, I hate that, but if anyone is interested in reading the book I read about all this, it's called "The Book of Destiny" by Carlos Barrios.
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10-26-2009 @ 9:23AM
Karen said...
Thanks I was curious. I have read diferent places that the last date on that calendar marked the end of a bunch of cycles. And that the inscription at the end of the calendar that was found that started all our dooms day rumors is actually illegable from damage to the artifact so they have no idea what it said about the end. If the ancient myans who created the caledar had been around still using it I am guessing they would have another one waiting to take the place of the old calendar and probabally would have celebrations in planned as the thing wound down, and the new cycles began
10-26-2009 @ 12:18PM
Saga said...
Thanks for the reference Wendy, I too was curious.
10-23-2009 @ 10:45PM
Kevin Whitesides said...
There are several ways one can take this. While there were a few people who did send me links to the clips of Charlie Frost without recognizing that this was obviously Woody Harrelson, most people do seem to recognize it clearly and immediately. All of the viral marketing websites are linked to the Sony 2012 site fairly clearly (though it is not impossible they could be missed). On one level, I am very (very!) impressed with this PR campaign. I think it has easily been more all-enveloping than any other film pre-release PR campaign. Not only do they have Facebook, Twitter and blog pages for several characters and organizations in the movie (which are ongoing and mutually interreflective), they have a phone # for the Institute for Human Continuity--Charlie Frost leaked a voice-mail password for one of their employees, so you can call up and listen to his private voice-mails--, they visited ComicCon in their various roles, they are electing a post-2012 leader and ambassadors, they keep popping up new websites as the pre-release story unfolds, they simultaneously broadcast a 5-minute special preview across nearly all major and minor TV networks, they are sending out 'secret' communiques to specific addresses in major cities on specific days for people to go get, I'm sure there are others I'm forgetting at the moment. But, it really is quite a fun world to play around in--if you're not attached to the rest of the 2012 hype. However, I do agree that it has a wide variety of effects, some of which are adverse and which you (Erik) describe well. I've been trying to figure out whether the movie (overall) is likely to make people take 2012 more seriously or less seriously. I think I'm slightly more inclined toward the latter, but not much. I'm really not sure.
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10-24-2009 @ 3:39AM
De said...
While I've heard enough about the movie to know I'm not really interested, I don't think the marketing has gone over the top. I don't see an ad for it every day. They haven't crammed it down our throats until we are choking and telling us we have to like it (like another movie franchise). The marketing seems to be aimed at the people who are or may be interested enough to look for the information. If anyone really does believe that 2012 is the end of the world, I'm sure they are busy building a bomb shelter and aren't interested in wasting time on silly movies.
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10-24-2009 @ 12:46PM
Paul said...
Seriously?
Do they also believe that Sony thinks the world is ending? Maybe if Sony believes the world is ending, they could perhaps just give up right now on making money, close down their company, spend all their resources instead of making movies and PS3's towards building arks for human continuity....
Really.....I think we have a lot more things to worry about today then the world ending in 2012. I don't get why people just don't get the fact that all calendars have to end on some day. All that stuff about prophecy may or may not be true, but if Hollywood has taught us anything it has taught us that anything can still happen. Even if we had a vision of what will happen, destiny is in our hands. Why can't we learn this lesson instead?
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10-26-2009 @ 7:09AM
sunny said...
Of COURSE it exploits people's fears....
That's what movies DO.
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