Film promotion and movie marketing is a necessary evil in the competitive contemporary landscape - for the audience it's something of a double edged sword, enticing us into the hype surrounding upcoming blockbusters yet at the same time often ending in disappointment, as the teasers and hints we get pre-release are not matched by the quality of the final product. But as much as it might be nice to do away with marketing altogether - and all the crass deceptions and little white lies which go with it - marketing is here to stay, and we can't really blame them when they deliver an ingenious campaign which ultimately amounts to polishing a turd. Many movies live and die by their marketing campaign, often to the point where the merits of the film itself - for instance the glaring question we should all ask: is it any good? - get lost in a swamp of promotional stunts and gimmicks. As much as some of us might agree with the legendary comedian Bill Hicks when he called for all people working in advertising to off themselves (and spare the rest of us the daily barrage of being told to buy pointless things we really don't need), there are a few exceptions; marketing campaigns which stand out from the crowd and deserve credit for being innovative, eye-catching and entertaining in their own right. Here are ten great marketing campaigns which stand out from the crowd, from interesting billboard campaigns to viral marketing on the internet.
