Post a Comment On: Horrorthon

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From CHUD, "With the upcoming release of the film Jim Carrey reportedly fired his agency over, The Number 23, PR folks are in full water-bailing effect, proving themselves to be tactless assholes in the process.Today my film critic buddy received a press release for The Number 23 from Sara Gans Blue of Wodell Associates, 23's PR firm. While the general idea of tragedies around the number 23 is the theme of the movie, the following example struck me as exploitive to the extreme.Since The Number 23 revolves around, yes, the number 23 and the myth all things evil can be traced, in one way or another, back to it, the Denver PR group overseeing publicity for the New Line film has apparently adopted a "Wow guys, this is a great idea on paper" but "What the hell are you thinking?" in real-world execution strategy: Highlight 23 by doing a Nexus-Lexus search of news articles and find tragic stories relating to the number 23.The latest press release has the following title: "Father charged in the freezing death of 23-month-old girl". And that's supposed to make me want to see the movie....how? The article has nothing to do with the upcoming film, other than to highlight 23 in red, and the URL for the film at the end of the story. No context. No commentary. Just the AP news story (read it here).Using the sinister real-life death of an infant (whose father beat her unconscious because she wouldn't go to bed and dropped her off in a park near the home where she froze solid in only her diaper and sweater) to garner attention for a fictional piece of shit is weak. Sure, they can do it. Sure, it might be clever. But it's tactless, emotionless, ill-conceived and smacks of desperation to drum up vapid publicity for a film that's getting none. And yes, I'm playing into it right now. Assholes.