Hollywood's "Genius" Marketing Campaign

Hollywood is a fickle industry. Remakes and "safe" pictures flood the market, and originality is sparse. Even when it comes, Hollywood usually puts it in limited release or direct-to-DVD. The audience would probably see it if they could, if it wasn't such a chore to find an actual showing, or if Hollywood suits would happen to actually MARKET the damn things. When I tell people Moon was the best movie this summer, people just say "huh?"

The lengths of stupidity in Hollywood's marketing strategies will never cease to amaze me. Is it really all that better to make a movie look like something that it is not than to just show an excellent movie as it is? Take The Boat that Rocked for example.

The Boat that Rocked is about a motley crew of rock and roll DJs who play radio from a boat in the middle of ocean to the British mainland, where it is pretty much prohibited. The British government than tried to take precautions off the air, most of which prove to be futile. It is very funny with a really fantastic appreciation for classic rock. It also happens to star some of the funnier British actors today. Some spoilers may come up, but I think I give away anything that would ruin the watching experience.



:20 mark
One of the handfull of trailer voice guys says (and I paraphrase) One American DJ (aka The Count) decides to start Pirate Radio to bring rock across the pond. I don't think so. The Count (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is in fact a replacement for a DJ that had quit from the original crew. Most of the implication is left thinking that Bill Nighy's character is the skipper of the whole endeavor. Also Hoffman is barely the star. The movie is in fact an ensemble. One of the best enesembles since the Ocean 11 movies. How can that not be marketable?

:25 mark
Twatt (played by Jack Davenport) is shown to call The Count the most famous DJ of all time. This is also not true. Twatt was in fact talking about Rhys Ifans' Gavin character, who is the DJ Hoffman's character was replacing.

:36 mark
Nighy than says they should have set sail years ago after the trailer voice implies that this is about their maiden voyage. What actually happens is that the boat is anchored at a specific spot and doesn't move until they were forced to by the government nearing the end of the movie.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they changed the very great title of The Boat that Rocked into Pirate Radio, a cheap generic name, undoubtedly including the term "Pirate" because of the financial success of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Just lock at the font.

Very similar. Similar enough to suggest a strategy of banking on the success of one on the other.

Hollywood needs to stop chasing the creativity away from the medium. It is hard enough trying to see indie pictures on a regular basis, we do not need all the good movies to go that way. They need to learn how to read numbers. G. I. Joe might have made money, but it was also way more accessible than both Moon and The Hurt Locker.