What Are The Minimums To Hype Without Lying?
I was watching TV yesterday, and a Spiderman 3 commercial came on.
The voiceover happily intoned "Critics around the world agree that Spiderman 3 is easily the best of the trilogy."
So it made me wonder exactly what has to happen for a company to be able to make that statement in a way that even has a modicum of truth to it.
How many critics do you really need, to have "critics around the world"? Are we talking a guy in Des Moines, someone in India, a critic in France and maybe one in Japan? Do they even need four?
Can't I legitimately use this to hype my own work? If I know some people in a few other countries, and they like my script, can't I say that "readers around the world agree that Scott Mullen's HIDE is not only the best unproduced screenplay they have ever read, but the best thriller of the past 20 years?"
Stuff like this could work sexually, too. "Women around the U.S. agree that when it comes to love-making, Irwin Jones is certainly above-average, and he'll even buy you dinner".
posted by Scott the Reader @ 7:07 AM
10 Comments:
I've seen Spiderman 3 yesterday and I can say I disagree with the voiceover in the trailer.
They don't need one real critic to say that. They even invent critics. With some search in the google-world you'll find some articles about that.
How can they say that? With the most important foe degraded to a second hand villian (Venom). How is possible to say it is the better from the serie?
I use whose hyping what to shift through "new movies" I know litte about. Over the years I come to find that if "Rolling Stone" is the only one lavishing praise on a given movie, it's sleeze factor is very high, and it's a movie that I probably should avoid.
In matters of hype, the reputation of the hyper is everything. Watch trends. Hypers represent a given mindset: usually conservative vs ulra liberal.
Great post as always, Scott. Keep up the great work!
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
I remember when Sony invented "David Manning" to help push crap like The Animal. You just can't trust this stuff.
I often wonder whether the audience polling has any actual effect on American Idol.
I know the reviews haven't been too keen for Spider-Man 3 but I still can't wait to see it. The reviews for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 were terrible and I had a blast at that movie.
But as for the topic at hand: I once saw a review for Rush Hour 2 where the critic said: "Same old tired formula: Jackie Chan kicks butt and Chris Tucker kicks sass." And then in the newspaper it quoted the review as: "Jackie Chan Kicks Butt!! Chris Tucker Kicks Sass!!"
Don't trust quotes! None of them!
yes, yes you can.
What I want to know is how many of the reviewers who longed for the days of "Grindhouse" Cinema had even been in one.
Love your site Scott, feel free to add me to your list of producers who think "Hide" is the best script of the century so far.
And don't print that stuff about Irwin, he's not really that good.
Funny you should blog that...
I've been following the career of a writer I kind of know who hired a PR firm to tell everyone that he was the greatest writer in the world... and I've read his scripts and they are awful - and he blatantly rips off concepts from other films. Oh, and everyone I know who has ead his scripts think they are awful...
But he's sold picthes to a few studios (and they didn't like the sripts he turned in late) and had ICM and CAA and WMA fighting to sign him.
See - it's all about the hype.
If I were you, I'd start saying that people around the world love your script.
I'd tell people that everyone loves my scripts - but it just seems wrong to me.
And that is probably why my career sucks and this guy is still getting work despite no one really liking his scripts.
- Bill
It's all BS. I love those ads though - The Best Movie Ever Made! for something like SOUND OF THUNDER.
don't believe anything anymore, the world is one huge viral cesspool of pre-paid puffed up overinflated bullshit
I mean, when a company pay bloggers to talk non-stop about a product as if they actually own it or used it (but don't) and we accept it as a truth, we are doomed
Also, the day CNN reports American Idol results as a news item we are.... shit, they just did
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