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Now That’s How You Market John Carter


John Carter might be able to kick Martian ass, but he’s had a tough time with Disney’s marketing department. First the movie was called A Princess of Mars, until Disney decided boys will never see any movie with the word “princess” in it (which is why, of course, no male ever ever watched The Princess Bride since its release in 1987). Then it became John Carter of Mars… until the totally unrelated CG film Mars Needs Moms tanked last year, and Disney’s marketers decided the problem was that people hate the word Mars. Since then it’s been titled the incredibly undescriptive John Carter, and all the trailers have gone from introducing the character and his journey and the alien cultures of Mars have to showing nothing but action scenes that make the movie look like some kind of combination Avatar and Attack of the Clones, which is not a compliment.

I think John Carter is going to be pretty good, if not great — I have a lot of trust in director Andrew Stanton — but Disney has just marketed this thing into the ground, and now no one seems interested. They need to do something else… like release this awesome fan-assembled trailer, which uses nothing but previously released footage, but put together in a way that makes the film more unique, more powerful and a lot more interesting.

If nothing else, Disney, you take that “the story that inspired 100 years of film-making” and you include it in every single JC trailer, TV spot, promo and ad you have left. Then send this dude a thank you card for doing your job for you. (Via Blastr)

PS: I’m kind of under the weather today, hence the more sporadic posts. My apologies.