10 Shocking Movie & TV Posters That Went Too Far
Sex, gore and everything in between; there are just some things you DON'T put on a poster!
The film and TV landscape is more cramped an industry than ever, what with major studios producing big-budget blockbusters in the hopes that they'll join the coveted $1 billion club, TV networks attempting to produce original content in an era where originality is sparse and streaming services giving both of those mediums a run for their money in virtually every way possible.
Yes, there's no much choice in today's day and age - and has been for quite some time now - that studios are willing to go that extra mile when it comes to getting people's attention. That's, of course, where advertising comes in, as the-powers-that-be of those respective companies are often willing to stop at nothing in order to produce an advertising campaign so eye-catching that potential viewers will have no choice but to go and check their show and/or film out for themselves.
That being said, there is a code of conduct that these posters, billboards and advertisements realistically should be following and, over the past few decades,some studios have occasionally missed the mark. On that note, let's traverse through the annals and check out some of film and TV posters that took things just that little bit too far.
10. American Horror Story
American Horror Story is no stranger to controversy. The Ryan Murphy anthology series has been unsettling viewers since it first began in 2011 and it continues to get more frightful with each passing season.
The show's promotional material is among the most creative in the business today, as it tends to find unique metaphorical ways of using iconography and symbols to unnerve and intrigue its viewers.
That said, the first season's artwork remains one of its most unsettling, as the Murder House was represented through a series of posters (one of which actually made its way onto the DVD/Blu-Ray cover) of the man in black leather attempting to, well, grope the heavily pregnant (and scantily clad) Vivien Harmon - no doubt a reference to the fact that the undead figure ends up impregnating her with the apparent Anti-Christ in the series itself.
Now, that's certainly one way of making an impact but, in all honesty, it's an impact it could have found other ways of making.