Suffocation Marketing

Suffocation Marketing - noun. Marketing that is so extensive that you cannot get away from it.

You've heard of saturation marketing? Well I'm attempting to coin a new phrase: suffocation marketing (or as CHUD.com called it, "carpet bombing"). Take a guess which film I'm referring to here.

That's right, Spider-Man 3. If there's anyone in the country who doesn't know it's coming out on Friday, they must be living in a cave. Or Wales. There are posters for it on every street around here (Manchester). That's is not really the point of this post, though. I've got no problem with seeing posters covering every wall, phone box and bus within a 5 mile radius.

What I do have an issue with is the trailers. There have been so many by now (I think four plus a teaser) that I feel like I've seen the whole film, and can certainly take a good guess at how the whole plot pans out. It's inevitably going to take away from the 'wow' factor when I see the film, which is a shame.

The makers were trying to keep Venom's appearance in the film a secret for a while. Now they've just clearly thought 'to hell with it' and chucked in everything and the kitchen sink. It might be the internet's fault - there was endless speculation that Venom was going to be in it - or it might be Kirsten Dunst's fault (she accidentally gave Venom away in an interview). Or maybe they were just planning to spoil the secret anyway.

Think about it: how awesome would it have been if you went in to Spidey 3 not knowing if Venom was going to be in it? His eventual appearance would be brilliant. Now I just have a feeling there are going to be plenty of people complaining he doesn't show up early enough.

I can see why Sony have shown a few glimpses of Venom in the trailers. He's obviously a big selling point. I just wish they'd held back on the trailers a bit and not quite given away so much of the film. Having said that, I've obviously not seen the film yet so they might still be withholding something amazing.

On the other side of the coin, there's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. I know there's still the best part of a month to wait for that one, but so far there's only been one trailer. Disney will probably step up the advertising once Spidey's out, but at the moment I'm sensing a lack of buzz for it (although it's one of my most anticipated films).

It'll be interesting to see what does best at the box office. Last year, Superman Returns was marketed to high heaven, but that smacked of desperation on WB's part, and resulted in a lacklustre opening. POTC then went and stomped all over it. This year, Pirates has stiffer competition.

So, will people be fed up of Spider-Man before it even comes out? Will Jack Sparrow bust the same blocks as he did last year? Does anyone really care??

I do!

(I know I've been talking about Spider-Man 3 and Superman Returns a lot. Sorry about that. Superhero films are taking up a large part of the film space in my brain at the moment.)