10 Movie Marketing Stunts That Backfired HARD

But not one of these films screwed the marketing pooch nearly as badly as 2013's Irish crime film A Belfast Story, which proved controversial a month prior to its release when members of the press were sent marketing packages in the style of nail bomb kits.

Empire film critic Chris Hewitt called the press kit "the most distasteful freebie ever," prompting director Nathan Todd to offer an apology while attempting to explain the marketing strategy:

"The media packs were not meant to offend or upset anyone but to demonstrate the difficult challenges facing the people and the politicians today. It was important for us to capture the weight and physicality of violence. To gloss over this would be wrong in our opinion."

Ultimately this spectacularly inappropriate piece of movie marketing, perhaps the most ill-advised in film history, is really the only reason anyone actually remembers A Belfast Story, which came and went without a trace and now rocks a cool 14% on Rotten Tomatoes. Oof.