RSS
Home
Will 'Paranormal Activity' reach 1 million demands?
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
A scene from "Paranormal Activity," which may be released Friday.
I used to love to the idea of viral marketing.
Now I just want to bury it along with Facebook users who still tag themselves in photos.
After college town cronies praised "Paranormal Activity," Paramount Pictures decided to slowly release the low-budget screamer based off city-by-city demand. They utilized Eventful, a B-site previously used to "demand" musicians at locations to which they usually don't travel. Yet the turnout sent Hollywood execs into a giddy frenzy and now they're promising a nationwide release if fans can request the horror flick — 1 million times.
The count is currently at about 600,000 demands. I highly doubt it will amass another half a million votes before Friday, but rate at which it is being demanded has been spiking by the hour — interactive banner advertising and an aggressive social networking push are easily the most influential factors at the moment.
But there's something wrong here. I don't want to have to demand a movie that has already been validated by critics as "living up to the hype" and the "one of the scariest films... seen since 'The Exorcist.'" Why should audiences have to beg a major studio to release a — please excuse the elementary wording — good movie? Of course, the marketing tactic is ingenious and I commend whoever devised this scheme. However, "Paranormal Activity" was netting critical acclaim and gaining underground momentum long before the suits decided to subject it to a publicity tightrope act.
Just show us the damn movie already. I guess that's all I'm trying to say.
Related Articles:
Add a Comment
