DEADPOOL: ADVERTISING:

Deadpool, a Marvel film released in 2016 was a big hit among both the True Believers (Marvel fans) and general film buffs alike. The advertising of the film gave a very strong presence to the general public, with innovative ideas..and lot of them.

The purpose of any marketing campaign remains the same, to promote the product, in this case, to increase the views of the film. What the Marvel Studios did very well was bring a new unique angle to advertising. They broke many of the advertising rules to do this..which shall be mentioned below.

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TWELVE DAYS OF DEADPOOL:

The world famous phrase 'Twelve Days Of Christmas' has royally been brought to life as the Marvel Company commercialised off the popular concept. They used the time period to give (you guessed it) twelve pieces of exclusive Deadpool content to the fans, finishing the season off with the official film trailer. You can find all the content at this link.

The Marvel buffs would have been over the moon, however to release daily content is unheard of in the promotion business. Leaving a few days between each teaser roars up suspicion, excitement and most of all..talk. As the days progressed the content became more interesting, beginning with film posters and ending with trailers, although they naturally had to fight for the attention of the Christmas season. With the array of 'Twelve Day' advertising for companies and products, there are only so many campaigns that one person will be dedicated to follow. Despite this, those interested lapped it up, hooked on the daily Deadpool drip, keeping them looking forward 'til the next instalment.

Well aware of the buzz, there were many companies which wanted to get involved, by promoting the campaign online among multiple platforms and websites, it was hard to ignore the growing phenomenon whenever to stepped onto the internet.

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THE EMOJI KEYBOARD:

As a part of the twelve days of exclusive content mentioned, the emoji keyboard was the gift of Day Eight. modern day world surrounds technology, especially the younger generations of which Deadpool is aimed at, meaning that a whole keyboard dedicated to Deadpool related emoticons is perfect. Emojis are used in daily life and can be easily slipped into almost every message, with the specially designed emojis from the app being made to replicate the current emojis, they should be able to widely used. The common use of them clearly encouraging word of mouth and then possible traction towards the blockbuster.

However there were so some drawbacks, the final app was given a poor 2.5 star rating on Apple's App Store which is unlikely to convince others to download. Other than this, in order for its use, unlike typical emoticon / font apps, you need to copy the emoji and paste it on your message. The risk comes into play as the inconvenience may be the first thing that fans think of when they associate with the Deadpool brand.

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THE EMOJI BILLBOARD:

During early 2016 in LA (California, USA) there was a billboard on a major read, this meant lots of viewing time and therefore a lot of traction. This thought of advertising is as normal, although the strategy of the billboard was ..not.

The billboard featured some emoticons which when read aloud were meant to suggest 'dead-poo-l', in order to reach this conclusion you need to take a minute to think. To think about the message that a billboard / advertisement is incredibly unheard of yet this is is a key piece of the advertising campaign that got people talking about the upcoming film. People from the area tweeted about the message and even joked about the interesting concept, Adweek described it as 'so stupid it's genius' and TechTimes called it 'crude and clever'.

It was taken slightly differently from different audiences, which brings me on to my next point, billboards are big pieces of advertisements which are meant to appeal to a wide variety of people. This means that this should keep all parties involved, for example if a grandparent was walking their grandkids home from school, would these emojis be understood by both parties? Yes, it is a talking point, but for many others, if it takes time to understand something so simple they may give up and walk along, not quite the outcome intended.

This single piece of advertising was so successful that it made appearances later in the marketing campaign, for example the lead star Ryan Reynolds (plays the character Wade Wilson or Deadpool') tweeted a reference to the billboard as a countdown tactic. Leading perfectly onto my next point:

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SELF PROMOTION:

Ryan Reynolds, the star, promoted much of the film through his own personal twitter account. This meant that his income of fans would take notice because of his role in the film, and not necessarily the film itself. He has featured as a superhero in some prior films, which unfortunately were not taken very gladly, with this in mind, it is very interesting - and almost risky - that a great deal of promotion was done through his own efforts. Of course the actors in a film are carefully chosen due to the people they will bring in, their 'fans', but the advertising is generally done by the production company and not the actual actors.

Despite this, Reynolds' online work paid off, he was an instrumental part of promotion and also the film itself as he co-produced Deadpool. His all round work for the Marvel hit proved to be vital, and in fact his contribution with his twitter account almost made sense for the advertising. Reynolds' personality coincides with that of the character he plays, the humour, witty banter and energy. The harmonious similarities means that his mentions of Deadpool, upcoming to its release and after, seemed very fitting, authentic and lack the vibe of a forced sales order.

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MISREPRESENTATION:

The jokesy character (Deadpool) meant that it was easy to be creative with advertising. With the release around Valentine's Day - and in many cases around the world, ON Valentine's Day - the marketing suggested that the genre was romance. With the advertisement being that the main genre is romance is false advertisement and in may cases would get bad press, imagine going to a restaurant and ordering your favourite meal, something you do NOT receive. This is a risky technique but because of the humour involved with both the character and themes, it worked.

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DIRTY HUMOUR:

Carrying on with the humour take, the dirty side of Reynolds' character is portrayed broadly in the posters and advertisements, some examples shown below. Some jokes and poses were kept

similar across the campaign, for example I have included two with the caption including 'load'. This keeps continuity in terms of the marketing as well as the character's sass.

The sass in question being likened to have been linked to teenage boys' language, a good point actually as this is a main demographic of the film. By using similar tongue, the potential audience is kept in check and are more likely to remember the advertisements from the phrases. The unlikelyness of seeing these phrases on a Hollywood blockbuster advertised to many ages is something which may help them keep it in mind as they compare the posters to others, possible word of mouth with their peers of the same age then brings in much more traction. The technique remains successful despite those who look down.

The poster to the right is very suggestive to those who understand it..which was a worrisome thought for many parents, grandparents and family members. The fact that this whole marketing campaign for Deadpool was so wide with a giant viewing oppurtunity, everyone from all ages, backgrounds, religions had the potential to see it. It was seen by some older generations as 'crude' while exposing inappropriate content to children.

A concern from younger audiences was that the actual film (including its characters) wouldn't keep up to the suggestive promise which the posters alluded to. But of course, they did.. Before seeing this in the cinemas, audiences thought how promotion vehicles included this kind of content, therefore suggesting that it was a big part of the film, which is something that isn't this prominent in past Marvel films. On the other hand, though, the posters weren't overly explicit, and only implied such matters. Therefore, if such themes weren't portrayed as a major theme, in essence, it shouldn't matter a great deal.