Americans love horror. Whether we're spending millions on the latest possession movie at the box office or making American Horror Story a ratings success, people just can't seem to get enough scares. However, those scares are very isolated experiences that don't haunt your children during family drives.
So, perhaps it's understandable that residents in big cities like Los Angeles and New York are in a nauseous tizzy over the ad campaign for FX's new horror series, The Strain, from Guillermo del Toro, which includes huge, conspicuous billboards of a worm-like creature crawling through a woman's eyeball. The art is also featured on the show's official website.
So, perhaps it's understandable that residents in big cities like Los Angeles and New York are in a nauseous tizzy over the ad campaign for FX's new horror series, The Strain, from Guillermo del Toro, which includes huge, conspicuous billboards of a worm-like creature crawling through a woman's eyeball. The art is also featured on the show's official website.
Source:
A representative for FX informed BuzzFeed that the network is “in the process of replacing the key art for The Strain on outdoor media in several locations.” When asked for details — how many locations? in New York also? — the representative did not respond immediately.
Source:
Why put something like that up on billboards in the first place? I'd have thought they'd know better. Yeah, it's a shocker, but lots of people won't like seeing it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a weird thing to do (And I agree, you would think they would know better), but I think the idea maybe was to make it feel like it was reality.
ReplyDeletePart of me thinks they were hoping for this reaction, a form of a viral marketing campaign in a sense. It's gotten the show media attention from sources that wouldn't normally cover it and made an impact across twitter.
ReplyDeleteWorm like creature coming out a women eye? plz it was so done on Falling Skies lol
ReplyDeleteTom had an alien creature pulled out his eye lol
Ffs you see worse on the news.
ReplyDeleteThen it did its job. The only reason you post this is to get the free media when people start calling you to take it down. Still this kind of "shock" advertising is getting really old.
ReplyDeleteYes, but the news isn't showing on the street as you drive by with your toddler. You can choose to block certain shows like the news from your kids. It's the fact that you cannot screen what your toddler sees when driving in the car that is the problem.
ReplyDeleteLmao
ReplyDeleteHa.. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteFX loses a little of my respect for this. It's a freaking picture and maybe people should stop being wusses. After this news broke yesterday I showed this poster and a commercial to my roommates four year old and aside from asking some questions and stating that it looked yucky she was more intrigued than anything. Certainly didnt wake up screaming during the night. Sounds like some over protective parents too lazy or stupid to explain to kids that they don't have to see things as being scary.
ReplyDeleteStupid, stupid people.
If a child is old enough to understand what they're seeing in that picture they are old enough to learn they don't have to be afraid of pictures and people playing pretend.
ReplyDeleteThis generation needs Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark in a bad way. I think its stupid that anyone would react this way but hey, publicity is publicity.
Indeed.
ReplyDeleteAre you a parent of a toddler, so you speak from the experience of a parent who has dealt with a child's very vivid and overactive imaginings? I'm an adult, not into overreactions to make believe, but found the billboard to be more than a bit over the top. Enough already. Where does it end? Do we just go along with it because it's currently "cool" or "in" to be immune to things designed for their shock value? I'm kind of ready for us to move on (or back) to good story telling, and not just go for the cheap-shot shock value.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a lot of experience with kids? I work with about 600 kids from 5-11 and I promise you that that poster is enough to give many of them nightmares, even some of the older ones. Yes, they do read Goosebumps and Scary Tales to Tell in the Dark, but different things affect children. When I was 8 years old, I watched part of Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo. I am still afraid of spiders today because of it. If I were to watch the show now instead of then, I probably would have laughed at how cheesy it is. Instead I saw it as a child and it deeply affected me. By all means, use the image in magazines targeted for adults, show it on late night TV, advertise it on FX channel, but it has no place being where parents cannot keep their kids from seeing it if they choose not to.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. Children perceive things far differently than adults do. The line between real and make believe is not as concrete with them, and even if older children realize that it is advertising, it doesn't mean that it won't creep into their subconscious and come out as a nightmare.
ReplyDeleteDahne, My comments were meant to be directed to CGS, in response to his stupid parents comment. I absolutely agree with everything you've said here so far.
ReplyDeleteOver the top? Okay. It's a horror show. The image should illustrate that. This does not even begin to approach the posters for AHS: Coven, which involved snakes and people stabbed with MULTIPLE LARGE PIECES OF SHARP METAL. Haha, the fact that anyone thinks this is something to be "shocked" at is the only shocking thing IMO.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid (7 or 8) I was *terrified* of The X-Files theme song, because I had seen the opening credits and remembered the images. When I finally told my mom she asked me if I wanted to sit with her - it ended up being the freakin' "Home" episode about inbreds. But my mom explained to me that it was pretend (and I had an EXTREMELY active imagination, I have been writing stories since I was old enough TO write) and while it was creepy that it can be fun to be scared by things that are not real. After that I watched it every Sunday with her and stopped finding it scary in a very short amount of time.
I think the problem is that parents either underestimate children or are too unwilling to challenge them. Thank god I had/have such an awesome mom.
But where does it end, then? Kids are going to see all sorts of stuff, be it on billboards or heck, passing down their own streets (I imagine kids who grow up in sketchy neighborhoods see quite a few unsavory things when they're passing by on their way to and from school, for instance), when they're out in public. At the mall where I work, there's huge ads for the Victoria's Secret store right across from the pretzel place where people bring their children to get food all the time. Those little kids are seeing photos of women in their underwear in provocative poses. Should the store take those ads down just in case, even though those ads are promoting the products inside the store?
ReplyDeleteI'm all for parents wanting to keep their kids safe, and not wanting to give them nightmares or exposing them to images they may be too young to deal with properly (though I do agree with another post that I think people way underestimate kids sometimes in that regard). And I agree that some stuff is nothing more than ridiculous shock value that, to me, I don't really see the point in putting out there. But at the same time, if you go out in public with your child the chances are very good you will come across some picture or activity or language or whatever that will not be suitable for your kid to see or hear. And unless you want to go around and block everything that's potentially offensive or traumatic that's out there in the public eye, and make the public at large tiptoe about on the off chance they may offend your kid somehow (in ways they may not be able to always predict), at some point you have to accept that's the risk you'll be taking.
Heck, considering the way some children's actual home lives are, trust me, I don't think there's much out there beyond their front door that could scare them any worse.
I taught school in the meth capital of the world, so yes many kids have terrible home lives. Yes, kids will see and hear things in public that I may not want them to. No, we cannot bubble wrap the world for kids, nor should we. However I think that people have a right to complain when a show purposely puts disturbing, bus-sized advertising in public areas. It is obvious that FX wanted this reaction and they got it. It's served its purpose.
ReplyDeleteComplaints are fine! Everyone's entitled to voice their opinions, and I've no problem with people stating they don't like something that's out there in the public. There's stuff I've seen when I've been out and about that hasn't thrilled me, either, so yeah, I totally get that. I haven't seen the billboard image in question, but judging from the description, I might've had a similar personal reaction to it, too. It certainly seems like a pretty gross image, I won't argue that.
ReplyDeleteJust the matter of whether or not personal offense is enough to pull down certain ads or other stuff that people put out there, that's the only thing I question. And you're absolutely right that these people do this stuff to get attention...and all the controversy does is make them more likely to do stuff like this in the future, not less. If the public starts reacting to these "shocking" images with a yawn and a shrug instead of making a big fuss either way, that robs them of what they want, and they'll have to change their marketing strategies as a result.
There is a certain amount of publicity to be garnered from "controversy" My problem with the publicity is that when I watched the first trailers I couldn't tell what the show was about. I thought it was medical based in the vein of Andromeda Strain.
ReplyDeleteI just saw that big eyeball/worm billboard in Los Angeles. It IS creepy. But the promotional videos are even creepier!
ReplyDeleteI totally know what you mean. It's like they didn't want anyone to know what the show was about. The trailers were all about an image or tone they wanted to set, not about the actual content. It was different. But that's probably what they were going for.
ReplyDeleteYou're a c**t who likes Castle and Once Upon A Time. Your opinion on anything is invalid you self-righteous censorship supporting, religious retard. Stick to fairy tales you stupid fat, typical American, moron.
ReplyDeleteYou're a c**t who likes Castle and Once Upon A Time. Your opinion on anything is invalid you self-righteous censorship supporting, religious retard. Stick to fairy tales you stupid fat, typical American, moron.
ReplyDeleteYou're a c**t who likes Castle and Once Upon A Time. Your opinion on anything is invalid you self-righteous censorship supporting, religious retard. Stick to fairy tales you stupid fat, typical American, moron.
Oh please, there have been worse ad campaigns than this. What about all the horrifying smoking ones
ReplyDeleteOr the ED ones that are so bad they are laughable.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but this is based on a series of novels that most likely existed before falling skies and the 'strain' (worm-looking virus) is going into her eye, as this virus turns people into [ugly looking] vampires...
ReplyDeletei live in nyc. well brooklyn ny and not once i see the ad for strain lol.
ReplyDeleteugly vampires mhmm this calls for the team of fringe and winchesters lol
Or it's just a spin off of Penny Dreadful :p
ReplyDeleteBut in this age of the internet, I think there's little excuse to go an look up what The Strain is about (that is if one wants to). There's Wikipedia (which will lead you the novels as well) and FX has there own website.
ReplyDeleteI think the idea was to make people wonder intentionally so either they wait an tune in, wait for more adds (as some of these are actually "teasers" not trailers), and/or go look it up online...
Maybe. but it can be a child from fringe and supernatural lol
ReplyDeleteOr just Bo from Believe...
ReplyDeletethe show on NBC is called Believe and theres a WWE wrestler called Bo Dallas and his gimmick is BOlieve haha
ReplyDeleteI think that is ridiculous, but great advertising for The Strain, lol - With the Billboards and without the Billboards.
ReplyDeleteEvery show should put a controversial Billboard up to advertise for upcoming seasons - It will either get them more fans OR cause such an uproar that they will have to take it down causing them to get more fans...Win/Win.
As a parent, I would not be happy to have my kids see that kind of advertising as we are driving along. I am careful about the commercials they see, and they do not watch the news. When they are older, I'll be introducing them to my favorite genre... for now, they don't need it shoved in their innocent faces.
ReplyDeleteI'll wait, but if I can't get enough info from a teaser (or trailer) to know where or not I will be interested...I'm not going to hunt down information. Personally, I want the teaser to intrigue me not confuse me.
ReplyDeleteGranted I wasn't confused by the Strain's teaser. I had a completely wrong idea of what the show was about and that was something I did not want to watch. Luckily, I did catch a longer trailer and am interested again.
Speaking just for myself, I don't like to see those horrifying ads. They come at me without advance warning and they dash my mood. Not that I don't like some horror shows, because I do, but I appreciate some control over what I let myself see.
ReplyDelete