How Dare You Promote Our Promotional Materials!

from the please-don't-watch-our-ads dept

cannen writes "This is a yahoo! news story about a trailer to a new movie called “Cloverfield”. This is one of those secretive movies. The interesting part isn’t so much about the movie, as the fact that they put the trailer before Transformers to generate “buzz”. Shortly after, the trailers from the movie were put on YouTube. The last paragraph in the article says: “Several copies of the trailer, seemingly shot in theaters with a camcorder, were posted on YouTube by Thursday morning. But by Thursday afternoon, some of those links had been taken down, replaced by an advisory saying, ‘This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Paramount Pictures Corp.’ Why is it that the studios wanna ruin their buzz?

Come on, cannen, it makes perfect sense — when you let lawyers run your entertainment company. Perhaps we should just be thankful that Paramount hasn’t tried to have the people who filmed the trailer arrested.

Filed Under:
Companies: paramount, youtube

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Comments on “How Dare You Promote Our Promotional Materials!”

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28 Comments
Sanguine Dream says:

Hook, line, and sinker...

This is nothing but an attempt at a viral publicity stunt. All they did was release the trailer in a limited capacity on purpose and when the other methods came into effect they cry foul.

The entertainment industry may be immoral and unethical but they are not stupid. It looks to me like someone has finally learned how to use the Streisand Effect to their advantage.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: incorrect?

I did RTFA… here’s the bold print at the beginning of it

“A man has been arrested under tightened anti-piracy laws in New York after allegedly recording the sci-fi blockbuster Transformers.”

It doesn’t say he recorded the Trailer for it…it says he recorded the “sci-fi blockbuster Transformers”…

spydrlink says:

Trailer Pull

Honestly, I saw the YouTube version a day before I saw Transformers (so last Thursday). I went to the movie and didn’t see the preview for “Cloverfield” at all. Needless to say, when I saw the version on YouTube it looked like it could be a great film and it definitely made me want to go see it when it comes out. But…I wouldn’t have known about it unless it was put up on YouTube.

Some point in the future the movie studios will understand the benefit of reaching wider audiences and free publicity. That sounds like a good business model to me…more reach for less cost.

The infamous Joe says:

Trailing.

Can someone tell me why Paramount would want a crappy looking version of their trailer on Youtube? Has anyone considered that they do not want to be represented by a low quality product?

1. I find it hard to believe that if Ladiesman217 puts up a trailer on youtube that is poor quality that anyone will think that means the *movie* is also going to be poor quality.

2. Instead of being asshats, Paramount could have simply uploaded a good quality trailer on youtube– which would have certainly become more popular than the same trailer in poorer quality– free hosting of your tailer *plus* you don’t look like a control-hungry asshat. Bonus!

3. The more people that see a commercial (which is what a trailer is) the more people who are likely to become interested in the product– regardless of the picture quality of said commercial. More exposure (especially free exposure) is better than less exposure when it comes to a commercial.

They *still* don’t get it, it seems.

swany says:

Re: Trailing.

1. I find it hard to believe that if Ladiesman217 puts up a trailer on youtube that is poor quality that anyone will think that means the *movie* is also going to be poor quality.

It is all about image. If I spent millions on a product like this, I sure as heck do not want a second rate version of my product available for people to see.

2. Instead of being asshats, Paramount could have simply uploaded a good quality trailer on youtube– which would have certainly become more popular than the same trailer in poorer quality– free hosting of your tailer *plus* you don’t look like a control-hungry asshat. Bonus! They *still* don’t get it, it seems.

If they still don’t get it, why is the trailer available on the Apple web site? And why are there still multiple trailers still on Youtube?

Anonymous Coward says:

Not that hard to figure out really. Remember Star Wars? Lord of the Rings? People went out of their way to see movies they wouldn’t normally see just to get a glimpse at a trailer for a major blockbuster. Paramount (and whoever else) just wants the same thing to happen here, even though at $140 mil+ I don’t think Transformers is in need of that kind of push.

Anonymous Coward says:

trailers are a buffer for candy, snacks, a smoke or just being late…otherwise there annoying 😛 to pay 10 bucks and being forced to watch another hollywood BS movie commerical save it for the free tv 🙂

hey people, STOP advertising there movies, they dont want it so dont do it…its there loss realy. let them pay the money for a proper commerical lol….MPAA=retarted.

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