10 Movie Marketing Stunts That Backfired HARD

It's frequently cringe-worthy when movie studios and their marketing departments try to prove themselves "down with the kids" by harnessing memes as part of their PR campaigns, and this backfired spectacularly for Paramount's 2017 Ghost in the Shell remake.

The film was already facing severe criticism from fans who felt that it was whitewashing the anime source material by casting the very Caucasian Scarlett Johansson as The Major.

And so, when Paramount released a meme generator for the movie - where fans could add their own inspirational quotes and images to the movie's title - the disgruntled many took the opportunity to voice their displeasure.

Film critic Valerie Complex's damning tweet, containing mocking memes highlighting Johansson's offensive casting and suggesting Rinko Kikuchi was better suited for the part, quickly went viral, prompting everyone else to follow suit with their own Twitter takedowns.

While this marketing botch can't be solely blamed for Ghost in the Shell's box office failure, it only further contributed to the narrative that the film was disrespecting the source material.