It shouldn’t happ en to a film journalist
Editor-at-Large Jamie Graham lifts the lid on movie journalism. This month: media drops.
Media drops: Jamie pokes through his post bag.
At the time of writing, the TF office has been a hub of excitement at 11am each morning for a week now, and it has nothing to do with workmen taking a Diet Coke break in the street outside. No, rather that today, Friday, is the last of a coordinated series of ‘media drops’ by Disney in order to promote the release of Inside Out.
The chime of 11 now triggers a Pavlovian response, all eyes swinging to the door that leads to the outside world ready to gleam gratitude at She Who Brings Gifts. In her rainbow wake, like a golden egg, sits a bag of wonderment, with each day’s haul consisting of cuddly toys, notepads, mugs, classic Disney DVDS and more.
Sending gifts to offices to promote a new release is not new: back in 1996, I received a paperweight in the form of a gouged-out eye to celebrate the release of Stephen Baldwin serial-killer flick Crimetime. But it’s really become a ‘thing’ since the advent of Twitter, with distributors keen to dish out goodies in the hope of getting a picture tweeted in return. Given the packages are usually funny, cutesy or tasty (food is a big favourite), said tweet is inevitably retweeted many times over and, voila, your film reaches millions in the click of a button. Hopefully punters are savvy enough to realise the tweet in and of itself is not an endorsement – TF might have loved the After Earth volcano cake but the movie itself is a flaming mountain of crap.
Of the obscene amount of media drops that Total Film has received over the years, favourites include a Sharknado cake replete with thrashing marzipan sharks, another cake made in the grisly image of Family Guy’s Brian lying dead in a pool of yummy blood, a guy visiting the office dressed in a Chappie outfit, a Game Of Thrones DVD delivered inside a chunk of ice, and some boxes of Inherent Vice pizza with the legend ‘Under the paving-stones, the beach!’ inscribed on the inside-lid. With ideas this creative, staffers can’t share the goodness online fast enough.
Unfortunately, not all media drops operate at such a level. There was the time, I forget the film, when we were informed that chicken and Bloody Marys were being sent to the office for lunch, but it arrived two hours late and turned out to be a couple of measly, stringy pieces sitting in the Bloody Marys because the bag had broken. A first-world problem, but ravenous staffers felt no inclination to tweet what looked like the morning after the fox had bust into the coop.
Food disasters aren’t uncommon, with hot grub often arriving cold and calcified. But that’s to be expected. What cannot be forgiven is the time we were sent a balaclava, gaffer tape and make-your-own-nail-bomb kit to mark the opening of Troubles film A Belfast Story. The biggest promo faux pas since Academy members were each presented with a mini chocolate foot at a screening of Christy Brown biopic My Left Foot, it enraged journos into venting their disgust on Twitter. Which of course gave a movie that no one had ever heard of a ton of marketing…
‘ TF loved the After Earth volcano cake but the movie is a mountain of crap’