For anyone who had read The Movie Blog for any length of time you know that I’m really sick of these pseudo “viral” marketing campaigns. I especially hated most of the ones for The Dark Knight. But wow… the studio’s newest viral campaign for the upcoming “Marley & Me“, staring Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston, is a pretty stupid one… because it gives away the ending of the movie (well… I can’t say for sure that it does since I’ve never read the book).
Here’s the background. I (a just about every other film webmaster) got an email from a girl named “Stephanie” with the images you see below, trying to pass herself off as just some random person sending out a news tips (clearly she’s with the studio or marketing company working for the studio). Her email ends with “This is going to be worse than when they shot Bambi’s mother.” Uh huh… yeah.
So obvisously these aren’t just random graffiti artists who have happened to read Marley & Me and are now wanting to spoil it for everyone. This is an organized marketing campaign by the studio. So if the dog really does die at the end of Marley and Me… what do you think about a studio putting out a marketing campaign that gives away the ending of the movie?
I mean… it is getting us talking about the movie… and I can assure you there probably wasn’t anything else that would get me talking about Marley & Me.
Your thoughts?
