The Movie: Ridley Scott's much-awaited "prequel" to the Alien movie was something of a mixed bag - it certainly had its moments but on the whole many viewers felt it lacked coherence and couldn't decide what kind of movie it wanted to be, ending with as many unanswered questions as it began with. The Campaign: The use of Guy Pearce as a younger Weyland in a TED-style talk about his vision of the future was just one inspired marketing technique which went viral (and perhaps justifies using a young actor like Pearce in the role of an old man, rather than simply getting an old man to play the part). TED approved the use of their branding, and the illusion of the Weyland Corporation as a real entity was continued with business cards, more videos online and other media. Effectiveness: Whether or not Fox had employed these marketing techniques, there is little doubt that Prometheus would have performed well at the box office. Still, the campaign marked a nice way to reintroduce the audience to the Alien universe, and if the studio didn't make quite the large sums they were expecting, perhaps this is down to the mixed reception of the movie itself rather than the marketing which preceded it.
