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LOL: Marketing For New Joshua Jackson Movie Uses Quotes From YouTube

Posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 by Peter Sciretta

one week youtube ad

When movie studios have a bad movie on their hands, you see advertisements featuring quotes from critics that work for outlets you’ve never heard of (and sometimes don’t even sound credible). You get some guy, from some regional blog, somewhere, claiming that The Spirit was the best comic book movie ever created. But how bad does a movie really have to be that Hollywood must resort to using quotes from YouTube in the film’s marketing materials?

The new Joshua Jackson cross-Canada motorcycle movie One Week is doing just that. And worse yet, the “critics” quoted haven’t even seen the movie itself. The quotes were lifted from the comments on the YouTube page of the film’s trailer. And only in the fine print, at the very bottom of the advertisement, does it reveal the source of the quotes. Of course, no one is going to mistake the quote “Damn This Looks Good!!!” as something that Roger Ebert, or any credible critic, would write. And the YouTube user names are an easy sign.

I’m not saying they are trying to deceive the readers of the newspaper. Although, the YouTube fine print could be larger and the claim “all of Canada is talking about One Week” is based off less than 90 comments on a YouTube trailer posting. I just think it’s a sad day when Hollywood has to resort to using quotes from YouTube users (even as part of a marketing angle) to try to sell a movie.

(thanks to /Film reader Mattias A for the tip)

source: torontoist (via: digg)

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LOL, ,

  • Ugh, Pacey.

    I hate Pacey.
  • Dr Wonderful
    Looks better than prince of persia!
  • Ha, I love how they have the names of the youtube people under it.
  • I think this is supposed to be a joke...just for this reason...It found it's way on this site, right?
  • Thrillhouse
    That's so sad. Another notch in the negative column for my ever-present conflict between the internet age being the greatest era ever....and the worst.
  • Second Look
    Obviously the makers of this advertisement are not trying to pull the fleece over anybody's eyes by suggesting professional outlets are saying these lines. By using the header "All of Canada is talking about ONE WEEK" they are attempting to suggest the general public's interest in this movie and clearly presenting this with the screennames underneath each quote. By using Youtube as a stand in for internet opinion, they frame their suggestion this way.

    Yes it's funny, but I don't think one should view the small youtube line at the bottom is a disclosure of guilt like a terrible side effect on a drug label or a swindling line of a shady contract. Framing the advertisement in this way is more in line with the very criticism you bring up against it.
  • Uh, I think just by reading some of those, one could deduce they were Internet comments of some kind.
  • zeeworks
    I've seen the film... and it blows.
  • This sucks only because Joshua Jackson is a damn good actor, who can't find a breakout role(excluding Fringe) after his success on Dawsons Creek. Bad marketing doesn't mean bad film.....Zack & Miri anyone?
  • I like him in Fringe even though I do not think is a great actor or anything close to it.
    He should stick to TV shows in my opinion.
  • Peter Bishop!!. Fringe = awesome.
  • That's hilarious. It would be strange if this movie was good and started something by using youtube quotes.
  • Thehick
    haha this is terrible, what was the marketing team thinking haha
  • freemachine
    ADD THIS ONE:

    *Quote from /film: "This movie looks craptastic!"
  • This is terrible marketing from the company...I however heard decent comments from older people who saw the movie. Maybe they are trying to target a younger audience with this add. An audience who, normally, would not go see this movie.
  • if anyone here owns Raiders of the Living Dead (doubtful), the back of the DVD box has a quote from an IMDB message board poster. if I recall correctly, it was Jester27. and the best part about it was the quote didnt even sell it well.

    "This movie is cool."
  • Maybe it's meant to be comedic? At least they credited the quotes to someone though, unlike the blurb on the cover of Fireproof (yeah, I'm never letting that go).
  • Palmer
    I heard that they even mis-attributed the quotes to different users. But I'm wondering how bad or good the movie really is.
  • *(Voice from another dimension)* EEEEPIC LOOOOL!!!
  • Excellent! It's about time filmmakers wise up to the fact that most critics are full of sh*t, and that their opinions are no better than common YouTube trolls. For all we know the movie may be great or it may suck completely, either way these quotes won't change that, nor would the quotes of so-called "respectable" film critics.
  • "Of course, no one is going to mistake the quote “Damn This Looks Good!!!” as something that Roger Ebert, or any credible critic,"

    Well that's the problem, the casual paper reader and casual movie goer probably won't even know who Roger Ebert is, or what one might consider a credible critic. Now that anyone with a blog can be a "critic" to be sourced by such advertising for bad movies, a lot of people are going to be thinking that all quotes are credible. The fact is, stuff like this works.
  • Not Sure
    Brawndo, it's what plants crave!
  • This has to be a joke, and if it is, I think it's brilliant.
  • Felipe
    You guys are so harsh..... Maybe it's just a joke or something?
    I found it funny.
  • moranis
    "it’s a sad day when Hollywood has to resort to using quotes from YouTube.."

    But it's not Hollywood? Blame Canada..
  • Beats paying off critics for soundbites.
  • I've never seen so many exclamation marks on a film's poster before! Hell, because 'POD552' says it's good, it must be worth a watch! :p Some of those comments are hilarious, kudos to the producer of the poster for making me laugh!
  • Rob
    Funny. But to be honest, the real story is that they found 26 comments on YouTube without poor spelling, that weren't in text-speak, and weren't by 13 year olds calling things gay, saying they sucked, or generally slagging them off. Remarkable. Unbelievable, frankly.
  • Haha, this made my day; really put a smile on my face.

    Some of you guys are taking this too seriously, it's meant to be humorous.

    "CANADIAN ACTORS, CANADIAN SOUNDTRACK, CANDADIAN ROAD TRIP --- FINALLY!!!!!!" -- Fakenphony

    Heh.
  • I wonder if we'll start see more of this in the years to come. it reminds me of David Manning, the fake film critic Sony came up with to give reviews for films like Knights Tale and The Animal
  • Canadian humor is lost on me =[
  • HAHA, classic.
  • I am completely surprised they were able to get so many positive comments from youtube. Not one of them is show me your boobs.
  • His career must be hurting.
  • they left these out:
    k2dart (1 day ago
    The part where he kills the ant and the starts his motorcylce quickly almost made me shit my pants! Im definitely gonna see this!

    Brazoo8 (1 day ago)
    It's just like "Mac and Me" except instead of being made by Coke and McDonald's it's made by Tim Horton's and the Canadian Tourism Commission! Yay!

    ToniKhoury83 (1 week ago)
    thats because ignorant americans probably never took the time to watch the trailer. so theyre stupidity isnt slandered on the walls yet. but give it time
    (^Reply) johnnycakes8787 (1 week ago)
    hey im american. well im canadian to

    amandarocks13 (4 weeks ago)
    Comment removed by author

    mtutt657 (1 week ago)
    Comment removed by author
  • haha especially 17VampireCrystal and Carahatestrig. And Fakenphoney
  • Someone must have been smoking crack when they did this, YouTube comments are almost as bad as 4chan...
  • Chris
    It's a joke. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot. End of discussion.
  • Exactly, no where does it claim to be from critics
  • jamie
    That is such an awesome idea. I am also assuming this movie is a comedy
  • lUJS
    Exactly Chris
  • I should've used this tactic for my previous short movie...

    "this was fucking awful." - uhfofie

    LOL
  • onethirtynine
    well i guess the marketing worked because now i want to see this movie. ...or maybe that has something to do with me being a motorcyclist ...and a Canadian.
  • Can you clarify, when you say "Hollywood" do you mean all filmmaking in North America? Because I'm pretty sure this is an independant, Canadian small budget movie, and they are doing all they can to get the word out. I for one would rather trust an everyday person's opinion on a movie over a critic's. Critics have a personal stake in their reviews, their livelihood depends on getting people's attention, the everyday person will say they like a film or not purely on whether they actually enjoyed.

    Now, I'm all for making fun of this ad because the quotes are based on the trailer, that is ridiculous, but the concept of advertising people's opinion of a movie, I'd actually like to see that more
  • onethirtynine
    pretty sure i've seen lots of TV spots in the 90's where they interview "real people" outside a theater who had just seen the movie.
  • Playe
    I bet ALL of you jerks never even SEEN One week! bastards!
  • LOOKS GOOD!! CAN'T WAIT!
  • blake
    "..it’s a sad day when Hollywood has to resort to using quotes from YouTube users.."

    Hollywood is not in Canada.

    Just sayin'
  • This is a cute, original tactic that would wear thin pretty quickly - I bet there are a bunch of filmmakers that wish they'd come up with it first because, even if not directly, the desired result of this marketing has worked. Here we are talking about it as a result of their tactic. Clever.
  • puttyduddy123
    thats so cool!
    i cant wait to see this movie!
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