Spring Break
Letting the movie speak for itself
Scott Dennis
Issue date: 7/2/08 Section: Forum
If you have walked through your local cinema lately, you may have seen a promotional poster for Disney's new animated feature, "Bolt."
If you were expecting the poster to tell you anything about the movie, its characters, or even its premise, you would be out of luck.
Instead of revealing anything of the film's once-original-but-now-clichéd plot, Disney wants you to know who does the voices.
Scrawled prominently across the top of the page in gleaming print are the names John Travolta and Miley Cyrus - the name of the movie itself is relegated to a bottom corner.
This is a curious advertising strategy, especially for Disney. There have been many animated Disney films that have employed celebrity voice talent, but markedly featuring the actors' names in advertising was not common practice for the company. Even promotional posters for its celebrity-filled "The Lion King" chose to promote the story and characters instead of the voices behind them.
In advertising "Bolt" as a film starring well-known personalities, Disney is basically saying, "See this movie because there are stars in it."
Please. This star-based advertising strategy for animated films was popularized by DreamWorks Pictures, whose animated films are infamous for featuring A-list actors.
Studios (I'm looking at you, DreamWorks) commonly promote a picture's famous voice actors in an attempt to pull focus from a film's lackluster story.
The box office effect of this tactic is that audiences go to a given film simply because a favorite actor is in it; this means that a studio can realistically expect good profits despite critics' disparaging reviews. Disney, perhaps sensing that "Bolt" is incapable of pulling audiences on its own merits, appears to be using the aforementioned star-based strategy.
It's kind of like they're dangling a shiny object in theaters and telling people, "Look at how shiny it is! Go to it!" But as it turns out, that radiant shine disguises a hook lying in wait. The technical term for this sort of thing is "brand exploitation."
If you were expecting the poster to tell you anything about the movie, its characters, or even its premise, you would be out of luck.
Instead of revealing anything of the film's once-original-but-now-clichéd plot, Disney wants you to know who does the voices.
Scrawled prominently across the top of the page in gleaming print are the names John Travolta and Miley Cyrus - the name of the movie itself is relegated to a bottom corner.
This is a curious advertising strategy, especially for Disney. There have been many animated Disney films that have employed celebrity voice talent, but markedly featuring the actors' names in advertising was not common practice for the company. Even promotional posters for its celebrity-filled "The Lion King" chose to promote the story and characters instead of the voices behind them.
In advertising "Bolt" as a film starring well-known personalities, Disney is basically saying, "See this movie because there are stars in it."
Please. This star-based advertising strategy for animated films was popularized by DreamWorks Pictures, whose animated films are infamous for featuring A-list actors.
Studios (I'm looking at you, DreamWorks) commonly promote a picture's famous voice actors in an attempt to pull focus from a film's lackluster story.
The box office effect of this tactic is that audiences go to a given film simply because a favorite actor is in it; this means that a studio can realistically expect good profits despite critics' disparaging reviews. Disney, perhaps sensing that "Bolt" is incapable of pulling audiences on its own merits, appears to be using the aforementioned star-based strategy.
It's kind of like they're dangling a shiny object in theaters and telling people, "Look at how shiny it is! Go to it!" But as it turns out, that radiant shine disguises a hook lying in wait. The technical term for this sort of thing is "brand exploitation."
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