I make silly, fun movies. Stuff you pick up at your local Blockbuster or watch on the Sci-fi Channel. I’ve always said that most of my films, because of budget limitations, end up being “two star” movies, but with a six pack and some friends, they become exceedingly enjoyable experiences.
One source of endless enjoyment for me and my co-workers is watching how the various buyers (DVD, television, and international) market the films. The trailers, posters, and commercials are wildly different depending on who the intended audience is. As an example, in the U.S. my latest film is called “Chrome Angels.” It’s a sci-fi/action/comedy about a female biker gang that runs into a town populated by evil cyborgs. At the Cannes Film Market, the distributor is calling it “Cyborg Conquest.” The trailer and poster don’t even reference female bikers, motorcycles, or comedy. They, instead, are selling it as a serious action film centered on CGI cyborgs that don’t actually appear in the film.
Hollywood has done this for years. How many times have you seen a trailer that looked awesome, only to find the film to be lame? Most of the time the best parts of the movie are in the trailer. While domestically, we rarely see the blatant trickery demonstrated by the overseas vendors, we are occasionally subjected to marketing elements that don’t match the final product.
Politics today is very similar to Hollywood. We have a President known more for his wife’s fashion and his great speeches than any policy achievements. After all, do you call someone lost without their script (i.e. teleprompter) anything but an actor? It’s all style and no substance. People pick politicians like they pick movies, based on the short version, the “trailer,” and not on the substance of the actual individual. It’s an emotional decision, based on immediate needs and not on actual principles.
And this, my friends, is where the conservative movement has lost the battle. Poll after poll indicates that the American public likes President Obama, but are against every single one of his actions and policies. On a broader scope, they actually are against the very tenants of the liberal agenda. The people love the trailer and the poster, but the movie itself gets two “big thumbs down.”
The Democrats pulled a great maneuver. They sold everyone a bunch of tired, old, ideas that we know won’t work as “Hope and Change.” They inflated their box office to make it seem like they had the number one film in the country. They created the “must see” movie event of the year, despite the fact that their production is lamer than the last installment of the “Police Academy” franchise.
In fact, they cut together a trailer like this one, that sells the film as something it isn’t:
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If you saw that trailer, then paid $10 bucks to see the real movie, you’d be pretty pissed. Imagine the reaction when the U.S. wakes up and gets the tab for the “Obama Movie” that we’re all living in right now.
All we need to do is refine and change our marketing. We know the critics (which in our industry is the mainstream media) are going to savage us, but who cares? How many summer blockbusters that make hundreds of millions of dollars get stellar reviews from the New York Times?
Conservatism is all about freedom. That’s the sales pitch. Conservatives endorse freedom. We are the modern day rebels. We are the punk rockers of politics. We like to work hard and party harder. The government is “The Man.” “The Man” tries to hold you down. Anybody who wants the “safety net” of cradle to the grave government support should be ridiculed. And rightfully so.
I grow a bit tired of the in-fighting on all the conservative blogs and news shows between the “social conservatives”: and the Libertarian wing of the party. Ditch abortion. Don’t ditch abortion. Move to the center. Don’t abandon principles. It’s a defeatist argument and one that really doesn’t need to be fought. The David Frums and Meghan McCains have it half right. Where they lose me is in their obvious attempts to gain approval from our enemies.
But they do have one thing right. In the current climate, many of the social issues are big losers amongst certain voter groups. The biggest bloc, and the one we have the greatest potential to turn, is women. Women tend to poll liberal on issues like gay marriage and abortion.
Now, before this turns into a two-hundred comment post with people yelling about not giving up their core principles, let me be clear. I do not advocate that the party pull left or advertise itself as “Democrat-light.” But I do advocate prioritizing the issues that form the foundation of our marketing campaign..
I’m sure “Transformers 2” has a romantic subtext between Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox. I’m sure that there are at least two minutes in the film of them making kissy face and being sappy. Yet, the trailer is all about giant robots trashing everything in sight. In fact, almost every shot is a giant explosion, or a giant robot. That’s smart marketing. It’s a summer popcorn movie. Give the people what they want. If there is a great romance or moments of rip-roaring comedy, that’s a pleasant surprise. But, if I don’t see a forklift turn into a robot and crush an Apache helicopter, I will be disappointed.
Did the Democrats put nationalizing the banks, firing corporate CEOs, and practically making out with Hugo Chavez in their trailer? Did their poster include Obama’s embarrassing world apology tour? I think not.
Yet, we allow the media to frame the discussions and the debates. Why, for example, did most of our pundits take the bait on the Perez Hilton thing and let the media frame the arguments as an example of the gay marriage issue being debated in the public forum? That incident was about how the left stifles free speech. It was about how women are second-class citizens in the Democratic party. Every discussion of Ms. California should have been an opportunity to bring up the media’s treatment of Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. But it wasn’t. Instead, we allowed the Democrats to cut our trailer and replace the robot on the key art with a photo of Shia LaBeouf.
The core values of the movement can be different from the marketing campaign. That’s the smart way to do it. It’s how the Democrats took over the government and it’s our only hope at taking it back.