Behold: The ugliest, most laughable poster for a studio film I’ve seen in years. Given that it’s part of one of the most inept marketing campaigns in recent memory, I probably shouldn’t surprised.
Note: I’m not including a preview of the image because I really think it deserves to be seen in it’s full glory.
Looks like the ad for a cheap teen perfume.
This film is so wait-for-dvd for me.
My vote would go to this one, at least for the year.
Duchovny and Anderson look like The Sims versions of themselves. It’s borderline fan-art.
This is really one of the most baffling major studio campaigns in memory. I swear it’s like they’re trying sabotage it.
I would rank this far below The Rocker poster.
At least Rocker’s is somewhat competent from a technical standpoint (albeit barely) and they’re getting across SOME message about the film (it’s a comedy, it will fail).
Then my vote would go to this one.
Then this one.
And then this one.
And they’re all from Fox. It’s not a conspiracy. They’re idiots.
The Rocker is the Clockwork Orange of posters compared to that atrocious X-Files pap.
I agree that they are all horrible posters.
BUT every single one of them (to varying degrees of success) at least present some sort of message or an idea of what the tone/premise of the film is.
The X-Files poster does none of those things.
FOX is really puzzling of late. Typically they’ve had the best marketing team in town, obviously something has changed.
Also: the fact that the film opens in SEVEN DAYS and the theatrical poster is just hitting tells you what kind of campaign they’re running.
Yeah, good argument. It’s ugly, dumb, cheap, doesn’t say anything and has the odd whiff of insult to it. I am now convinced of its ineptitude.
Those others have just a few of those things to them, although I’d argue some of them have it to greater degrees. Was just startled that they were all from the same studio.
And maybe the Mirrors poster wasn’t horrible, just ugly and boring.
The image you linked to is an international poster, though, so Fox marketing, as such, may not be responsible for it depending on what the overseas distribution deal is.
This poster is the US version.
Unless I’m mistaken, it appears that FOX UK (where the poster is from) is handling the release:
http://www.fox.co.uk/cinema/
OK, but wouldn’t Fox UK have their own marketing department? That’s not a rhetorical question, I’m actually wondering. You said earlier that they used to have “the best marketing team in town,” and I’m asking if that same team is the one responsible for the UK poster you linked to.
I love the X-Files. I’ll be there opening day, ugly poster or not.
I was talking about Fox US earlier (their past successes vs. the clusterfuck campaigns they’ve run the past 12 months). Fox UK does have their own marketing department.
HOWEVER, the mothership is typically responsible for the general direction of how to advertise the film worldwide. It’s very rare than an international campaign does not utilize materials, taglines, themes, etc. provided by the producing studio.
Since Fox’s US campaign has been completely WITHOUT direction, it’s not surprising that the international marketers are at a loss of how to sell the thing.
OK, thanks for clarifying. It is strange that this release is so low-key, but then again, I can’t imagine anyone but the die-hards really cares about a new X-Files movie. It’s hard for me to blame them for not throwing good money into a marketing campaign.
Assuming Devin at CHUD is still under embargo, but he posted the following last night:
Disappointing. It was clear FOX wasn’t enthused by the film, but I would hoping it would turn out ok regardless.
I don’t have high hopes for this one. The trailer isn’t much better. I can’t wait to see what kind of reviews it gets! Should be ugly…