Edward L. sent in a link to Ultra Culture’s post about trailers for the new Will Smith movie “Seven Pounds” market the movie differently depending on whether the target audience is men or women. Ultra Culture’s analysis is funnier than anything I’d say, so I’m just going to quote it.
Here’s one trailer:
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kpK1fKzoDs[/youtube]
Ultra Culture says:
WOMEN!
This is the film for you! Its got that sexy Will Smith in it (from Hitch!) and just look at all the emotional turmoil he’s going through with Rosario Dawson. And did you see that? It’s directed by the guy who did Pursuit of Happyness! What a lovely, life-affirming film that was.
Another trailer:
Again from Ultra Culture:
MEN!
This is the film for you! Its got that cool Will Smith in it (from Hancock!) and just look at all that fast paced action he’s going through with that gruff-voiced man. And those fast cuts, whooshing noises and gradually fading words remind me of Enemy of the State! What a heart-pounding thrill-ride that was.
You might pair this with a discussion of how other products are marketed differently to men and women, such as cars or food.
Thanks, Edward!
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 9
Dangger — January 6, 2009
In a larger scale, episodes 1, 2 and 3 of Star Wars were directed in the same way. The first one has all the kids stuff, to attract more fans, the second has the romantic part, with all the secrets floating around. Finally, the third one has all the masculine things. But anyways, all of them had sufficient of everything to keep the interest alive.
Cheers.
Sandra — January 6, 2009
Also note that the trailor amined for men is rated PG13, while the trailor for women are not.
On a personal note, neither of these trailers make me interested in the movie, but if they were combined I'd probably want to see it ("typical" women movies, or men movies usually don't interest me. I like a combination of both).
Elena — January 7, 2009
Oddly enough, the Spanish theatrical trailer kind of combines the two above. They've also changed the title to "Siete Almas" ("Seven Souls"), probably because people would interpret "Siete Libras" as an approximate monetary value of 7.75€ rather than a weight unit.
Will — January 9, 2009
I don't find enough in the trailer to interest me, but I went and looked up The Pursuit of Happyness which I'd somehow never heard of, and now I want to see that.
A bit more on topic, doesn't marketing the movie this way pretty much guarantee that someone will be disappointed? One group or the other is going to leave saying "that's not how the trailer portrayed it at all."
Andrew — January 11, 2009
Ultra Culture presented this as if it's an awful way to approach the trailers, but I'm fairly certain that for a movie as high budget as this, a decent amount of market analysis goes into the advertising. Would they be doing this if it didn't work and/or if it hasn't worked in the past? While stereotypes definitely CANNOT be applied to individuals, they often CAN be applied to large groups.
A stereotype is not a bias or a negative concept; it's merely a generalization of a trend seen on a large scale. In one way, it can be said to be the closest the brain can get to true statistics without doing formal data gathering and computation.
I'm not saying that all stereotypes are valid. I'm saying that stereotypes can be rooted firmly in statistical truth. While they can't be fitted to single people, they can illuminate trends for us.
Political Affiliation and TV Preferences » Sociological Images — April 3, 2010
[...] coverage in the U.S., targeted marketing on Hulu, a breakdown of televised football broadcasts, marketing movies to men and women, var addthis_language = 'en'; Leave a Comment Tags: marketing, politics, sports, [...]
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