Marketing Batman: The Dark Knight

With this summer's anticipated blockbuster "Batman: The Dark Knight," the topic has continually been brought up that this is Heath Ledger's last performance before his untimely death. Studio marketers have become increasingly worried that this will overshadow the entire picture and they do not want their marketing tactics to seem exploitative. However, this movie is about Batman, not the Joker. The movie chronicles Batman's struggle to defeat one of the most famous villains of the comic book series, and how to overcome evil. As long as the studio execs remember this, then there should be no worry about seeming tactless to the early passing of a popular actor. The Joker is not the main character of the movie, and as long as they focus on the brilliance of his performance, then there should be no worry or need for further discussion. Too often focus is taken away from the actual movie performance to the actors portraying the leading roles and their latest public outing or legal troubles.

About the Author: Ellen Stevens

As the Search Media Manager for Off Madison Ave’s interactive division, Mighty Interactive, Ellen develops and manages strategic online paid search and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) campaigns for clients of all sizes. She is also the head of the internship program at Off Madison Ave. Ellen uses her previous agency internship experience to be an effective mentor and help the students develop skills they will need professionally after graduation. Ellen graduated from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a certificate in international business.

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4 comments so far

Eric Reid says:

Speaking as a former comic aficionado, (read:"geek") usually only the first superhero movie in a series is about the superhero. Even then, the movies are more about showing off the various comic book villains - or at least, the stars they got to play them.

In this case though, between Ledger's sufficiently creepy Joker and all the news around his death, all they'll really need to do is spread, "Batman July 18" on every available surface and the rest will sell itself.

Ellen Stevens says:

That's something that I, being a non-comic aficionado (but still "geek"), never realized. I have been a fan of the Spider-Man and Batman movies, and now that I think of it, there is a lot of hype about the villain...my favorite being Poison Ivy (probably because she's a girl :) ). I just hope people focus more on the performance - Which everyone is saying is amazing - and not on his death.

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