Super 8: Supplemental post 5

Steven Spielberg and JJ Abrams have joined together to create what was supposed to be a highly secretive new film Super 8. The film is not scheduled to release until summer 2011, and it was scarcely spoken about. Unfortunately, yesterday, an illegal recording of the trailer for the film was released online. The film looks action packed and the trailer leaves the audience wanting more, as any good trailer will do. But the question is, why the secrecy? The trailer will be airing soon enough, so what is the purpose of this tactic that PR executives were attempting to utilize. It seems to be a similar tactic to that which many stars use when they refuse to talk about their personal lives. What is it about the secretive that intrigues us so much? Will Smith’s recent film, Seven Pounds, utilized the same sort of marketing campaign where very little was known about the films content and story line. There is something about the unknown that draws us in; we have this itch to know all the details about basically everything, that won’t be scratched until the secrets are revealed. We clearly do it with movies, celebrities, and various other areas of life. Marketing agencies, PR firms, and publicists have all tapped into this need for knowledge we seem to have and have capitalized on their ability to utilize it in their favor; that is, until someone with a camera phone illegally pirates a trailer, in which case your entire marketing campaign is out the window. It looks like Spielberg an Abrams’ people are going to have to come up with something new to get audiences to the theaters next summer.