THE WRIGHT STUFF: Teasers and Trailers – are we seeing too much?

By far one of the best marketing campaigns I have ever seen for a movie was for The Dark Knight. The movie was so well protected, people all over the world were clamouring for anything they could get their hands on. The campaign, which sent people on a treasure hunt around the US in order to reveal the first image of the Joker, was a stroke of genius, it was fun, exciting and the rewards were fantastic! The surprise mailed mystery parcels, viral websites, all tied in beautifully with the release of the teaser and trailers.

It was later mimicked to various degrees of success with Man of Steel, Star Trek etc, but it was a nifty way for people to get excited about the movie. I’m not sure what has happened in the past year or two, but now it seems people are so impatient, we get teasers for teasers, a vast array of trailers, tv spots and even whole scenes. I remember going to see 300: Rise of an Empire and was a bit angry that we were treated to a sneak preview of Captain America 2. Not that it wasn’t fantastic, but it ended up being the opening ten minutes – this is something I really don’t agree with, as I would have much preferred to have waited for the actual movie. Instead, it put a dampener when I eventually went to see it, as I was kinda bored for the first ten minutes when I should have been wowed.

This leads me on to the fact that I honestly think there is an over saturation of releasing too much movie content before we actually get to see it. I really think it is the cause of people over-hyping movies and the end result is a bit of a disappointment, because we have simply seen way too much beforehand.

I personally feel this also affects the box office figures in the long run. I have learnt my lesson now though, as I have disciplined myself to not watch trailers for movies I am anticipating. the new X-Men trailer? Not seen it. The recent Godzilla trailers? Never gonna watch ’em. I want my movie experience to remain as pure as possible, I want to be wowed, surprised and enthralled at the magic I see on screen. Why not give it a try? Pick a major movie for this summer that you are looking forward to – Ninja Turtles, Transformers 4 etc, then simply refuse to watch any trailers, clips, tv spots or content of any kind until you go to see the movie itself, you might be surprised as to how much more you will enjoy it.