Marketing is one of the most crucial parts of movie production, secondary only perhaps to the actual making of the film after all, without it whos even going to know that the film exists? And as we move beyond mere film posters and press junkets and into the age of digital and stunt-based campaigns, marketing is becoming even more important. In fact, four years ago the average marketing spend of a movie was estimated to be around 70% of its total budget, already a huge proportion, and that figure has only skyrocketed since. Though if the hype successful marketing campaigns have created around certain films Christopher Nolans The Dark Knight and Inception have both been accompanied by brilliant interactive viral campaigns, for example the payoff is definitely worth the high cost. But some movie marketing campaigns, successful or not, go a little too far in their exploits to entice to viewers and end up weirding out audiences in the process. Naturally a lot of the most messed-up marketing campaigns come from horror films appealing to fans they already know like a good scare, but comedy film marketers have also conjured some pretty odd campaigns too and as weird or inappropriate as they may be, at least they got people talking.
12. Carrie's Levitating Coffee Shop Patrons
The marketing agency behind the 2013 version of Carrie were posed with a unique problem when promoting the film: how to stir up hype around a remake that had been done so iconically the first time around? A viral video, of course! But first they needed some people to star in it, and those victims were the unwitting customers at a New York coffee shop. After rigging the shop with various wires, fake walls and remote-controlled furniture the company behind the stunt, Thinkmodo, set up a fake confrontation between a girl and a man (both planted actors) that had customers thinking they were witnessing a real episode of telekinetic rage. Needless to say everyone was put right off their pumpkin spice lattes and the video went viral with 1.2 million views during its first week online. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlOxlSOr3_M
