10 Movie Marketing Stunts That Backfired HARD

Back in 2009, Megan Fox was very much an "It girl," having come to prominence for her performance as Mikaela Banes in Michael Bay's first two Transformers movies.

Hollywood unsurprisingly attempted to capitalise on Fox's status as a sex symbol by shoving her into a number of eye candy roles, apparently including 2009's horror-comedy Jennifer's Body.

The film was marketed almost exclusively on Fox's sex appeal, with posters featuring her in minimal clothing and suggestive poses, while the trailers played-up her kissing scene with Amanda Seyfried, enough that it basically seemed like a vapid, single-minded star vehicle.

By marketing itself so aggressively to young men at the expense of everyone else, it's unsurprising that it grossed just $31.6 million worldwide amid wildly mixed reviews.

In more recent years, however, the film has been re-evaluated following the onset of the #MeToo movement, with director Karyn Kusama opening up about her difficulties convincing the studio to market the film appropriately:

"I kept sort of reminding everybody, 'Guys, we can't market this movie to boys'...and then have them go to the theater expecting one thing and then seeing Megan Fox not really take off her clothes but rip a guy's intestines out and eat them."

Horrifyingly, Kusama also stated that a rejected marketing idea was to have Fox host an amateur porn site. Writer Diablo Code elaborated on the film's marketing failure:

"Because of the way the film was marketed, people wanted to see the movie as a cheap, trashy, exploitative vehicle for the hot girl from Transformers. That's how people insisted on seeing the film, even though I think when you watch it, it's pretty obvious that there's something else going on...

You're disappointing your audience. That's an issue. And also you're turning off girls, who might have enjoyed the film. It's almost like they had a marketing plan in place before seeing the movie and then just stuck with that."