A funny thing happened on launch day in Dallas last night … At the book signing in the really nice Barnes & Noble in Dallas (Lincoln Park), I was asked about Internet marketing! The general questions seemed to be about whether or not the marketing of Christian Bale – and other actors – should be organic, or should it indeed be crafted by marketers and publicists.
It was an interesting conversation that turned to politics since politicians now have “handlers” and spin doctors and image consultants. How real are these people when they’ve been groomed to appeal to as many people as possible?
I think the idealistic answer is that marketing and publicity have their roles to play. You can have a very good actor – like Christian – who goes unnoticed because of a low profile. I worked on the Internet campaign for a wonderful indie film called Donnie Darko which had bombed at the box office but found a strong following on video. That film helped to turn Jake Gyllenhaal into a star. Without marketing, that film would have disappeared. There are plenty of wonderful indie films that, for one reason or another, didn’t get a distribution deal, didn’t get a high profile distribution deal, went straight to video, went just around the film festival circuit, and you might have missed a wonderful performance.
Chatting about Donnie Darko got the people at my book signing chatting about their favorite overlooked films. Newsies anyone? We talked about Pandorum with the very much underrated (and anti-publicity) Ben Foster. And we talked about Phillip Phillips’ win of American Idol – was there something weird about AI’s Internet voting? Who knows, but chances are, you discovered your favorite singer, actor or celebrity thanks to a marketer.:)
Christian Bale: The Inside Story of the Darkest Batman 