Greener223224
Uh, what's the trope for when people in real life market a movie or TV show as a different genre? Like what happened to Brewtal Legend?
...Burn... Hide / Show Replies
Hmm. Thinking of two things: 1. A novel that is so blisteringly awful that I will not name it publicly (lest I give it free advertising) was marketed as science fiction, but was more of a contemporary international action thriller. As the latter, it was merely awful; as the former, it was utterly execrable.
2. The television spots co-promoting King Ralph with Burger King marketed a somewhat romantic fish-out-of-water comedy as a slapstick farce, mischaracterizing the protagonist in the process.
Edited by hbquikcomjamesl
(This is a bit of thread necromancy, but honestly, this is what I'm wondering! The trope keeps getting linked as an example of "thing is marketed as [light-hearted romcom, for example] when it's actually [an action movie with explosions]," and then you get to the page and it's almost all "thing has weird/inappropriate merchandise." I feel like there needs to be two separate tropes here.)
This is an actual screenshot.
The SpongeBob SquarePants seems to overreact a bit. "The show is rated TV Y-7, so kids under 7 shouldn't even know it exists or they'll be traumatised!"
ME!? You want ME to be the director of your Christmas play?!
So this got pulled:
- The Terminator 2: Judgment Day line of action figures, released to tie in with a very violent R-rated movie. And now, the Terminator 2 Minimates, finding their way into Toys R Us stores across the nation. Cute, 2 inch tall versions of the T2 characters. While Terminator 2 is quite toned down from the first (for one thing the terminator is no longer a killer, but a kid friendly bodyguard that does what you say) it was still an R rated movie that no kid has any business seeing.
- T2 also had a plug in the July 1992 issue of Disney Adventuresincluding a villain feature that highlighted the T-1000 (a liquid metal killer that brutally executes multiple people over the course of the film). In a magazine that's marketed to children and teenagers. What were they thinking?
On the grounds that it's "essentially a kid's movie with some violent scenes." Uh... that doesn't remove the fact there are really violent scenes, and even though there are touching moments, it's still explicitly not for kids in any measurable sense.
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.
This article is a disaster. It's practically an example sheet for Fan Myopia rather than a useful or meaningful selection of marketing problems. Many of these are serious "who cares?" cases; others miss the point in truly epic fashion (e.g., Darth Vader being marketed to kids is not by mistake).
I wouldn't know how to begin actually fixing the page except with a flamethrower. Perhaps that's what it needs.
Alright, one of us made a distinction between pink-box Barbi and collectible Barbi...but if memory serves me...wasn't Barbi originally a collectible figure of a popular sex industry icon that got rebranded in the U.S.A. as a toy for little girls to dress up? It seems like Miss Barbra needs an entry about her original first trip to the children's isle, not just about her occasional lapses back into her original, currently unmentioned, lifestyle.
Field Primus
For the sake of Periphery Demographic, I feel there ought to be a note on how they also fail to take advantage of the marketing opportunities they could make lucrative use of. Then I could put these examples up:
- Why is Buzz Lightyear everywhere, but XR nowhere to be found? I would buy his action figures in a heartbeat! Heck, they've got a whole assortment of potential action figures, what with the lineup of crazy villains (XL, Nos-4-A-2, that guy who can duplicate himself...); why did this never go anywhere?
- How is it Claude Frollo got an action figure, but Clopin gets no love? Could barely find a picture of him on anything, and the few pics I did find were all the same pose! (Did the Executive Meddlers not realize the kind of teenage hormones that movie inadvertently marketed to? There were internet wars going on!)
- What's up with marketing Aladdin (the series) to 4-year-old girls?? The few vids I've seen not only focused on Princess Jasmine (for me, the least interesting member of the core cast), but were paired with episodes of The Little Mermaid. The DVD release of this series can't come soon enough. Also, again, the execs miss the chance to give us posable action figures of Mozonrath, Mechanicles, the cat girl villain, mud men, Abys Mal, Haroud, Amin Damoola... man, I could've had fun with this cast.
...anyway, yeah, for every really bad marketing decision they make, they also fail to take advantage of a really good one. Yargh.
Edited by Kilyle Only the curious have, if they live, a tale worth telling at all. Hide / Show Replies
That should be a Trope on its own. They Wasted A Perfectly Good Toy Idea?
Edited by Noah1 An open mind and compassionate heart are among the most important qualities we can have.
Per TRS, Misaimed Marketing was renamed to Misaimed Merchandising:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16875183000.42600900
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.