5 Examples Of Movie Marketing That Shamelessly Embellished What "Starring" Means

5. Jennifer Aniston's Role in Leprechaun Has Become Increasingly More Important

The original poster for the 1993 horror comedy Leprechaun featured the grotesque title creature (portrayed by Warwick "Willow" Davis) creepily peeking through a doorway. This made sense because, like most horror films, the main draw of Leprechaun was the monster and the victims were played by little-known actors.

Because of that, there was no purpose to list these actors' names on the poster or feature them prominently in advertising. Frankly, at the time Davis was probably the most famous actor in the film, despite usually appearing under heavy makeup or costumes in his other notable roles, like as the Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi and those two Ewok movies that nobody talks about. Though Leprechaun didn't do great at the box office, it cost under a million to make so it easily turned a profit... especially after a minor tweak to the VHS and DVD cover art to highlight the previously little-known Jennifer Aniston, who stars in the movie.

By 1996 Friends was one of the most popular shows on television, and it soon became clear that Aniston was the breakout star of the series. Lionsgate, which owns the home media rights to Leprechaun, realized that it had in its vaults a movie starring one of the most popular actresses in America, so it added a shamrock on the cover of the VHS that said "Starring Jennifer Aniston."

To be fair, Aniston does have a lead role in the film, but despite being a beautiful woman she wasn't considered cover-worthy until after Friends became a hit. Still, that little shamrock doesn't seem like a big deal. But it didn't end there: Since then Aniston has remained a popular actress, which has led to her being featured with increasing prominence on the cover art with every subsequent home media release. In fact, the bigger Aniston gets on the art, the smaller the actual Leprechaun gets.

The tagline was even changed from "Your luck just ran out" to "Her luck just ran out" to fully push the idea that this movie is all about Aniston. To turn the tables, this would be like the designers of the packaging of the Friends DVD season collections shrinking the photo of David Schwimmer on the packaging of seasons nine and ten in order to slap on a large picture of Paul Rudd on instead, who is much more popular now than he was when he appeared on Friends in a recurring role in the last two seasons. Actually, now that I think about it that isn't a bad idea at all and probably would sell more sets.