As a John Carter Fan — new Farmers’ Insurance – Marvel Avengers commercial makes me want to cry (or go on a rampage)

Michael Sellers Other Stuff

So…John Carter?  Remember that?   Flop of the century? Now, how much creative marketing did you see for John Carter?  How many co-branding efforts? Um … well, I would say, zero.

Along comes Avengers and the same marketing team — the Disney team — seems to suddenly be on its game.  There’s an Audi tie-in, several others — and then tonight, I see the most improbable one of all– a Farmers Insurance commercial.

And here, through the magic of Youtube, you can see it.

Aaarrrrgggghhhhhhhh!!!!

Filipinos have a term — I don’t know if it exists in American English. It’s called “junking”. It’s when you put up a candidate in an election and set him up to lose to serve a larger purpose.

The “junking” of John Carter……….now there’s a story.

13 comments

  • although avengers was a pretty good movie if you just like non stop violence…because that is all it is….but it still didnt need the over the top help…like who wouldnt see this movie with thor the hulk, & iron man, their fans would have gone just because…..John Carter was a better movie story wise & in my opinion i havent seen a movie yet this year that was better.

  • The ‘tie in’ that irritates me most was working the advance screening of The Avengers into the storyline of General Hospital yesterday. I wanted to throw things at my tv. I guess I can take a little comfort in the fact that the commercials are mostly stupid–
    in my opinion–and Stan Lee must be a little desperate to participate. But the movie will make boatloads of money and Disney/Marvel/ABC can pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Too many prefer Fool’s gold to the real thing.

  • Yea its sad to see everything that they’re doing for tie-ins. I work at a drugstore and the merchandise is endless (Soda, Baseball bats, projection flashlights, masks, toys, puzzles, tatoos, etc.), and I see nada in my store for John Carter. No frood promotions, no puzzles.

  • There there Dotar, i’ts allright. In all honesty though I know how you are feeling. The fact that John Carter could have gotten the same marketing push as The Avengers could make any Barsoomian angry. Hopefully John Carter’s final boxoffice results combined with the films DVD sales will convince Disney to move forward with another one. Whether or not that happens we still live.

  • It makes me so sad to think what could have been…tears… Sigh…. But..we must keep the vision alive….BARSOOM…

  • I’m sure we will hear from some unnamed marketing mole on how no companies were interested in the “John Carter” property, they couldn’t figure out how to sell the character or whatever (after all, how do you do a product placement in a movie like that?). And that Stanton was a control freak who wouldn’t let it happen anyways, blah, blah, blah.
    And I call B.S. on that. Stuff like this has to be set up and in motion while the movie is still being shot. You don’t get a deal for a toy line or fast-food kid’s meal tie-ins after the first trailer is shown. And you can’t tell me there wouldn’t be companies ready to bow down to the mouse house, eager to get a product license even if they thought it might be a tough sell. They would assume Disney would get the movie and character the recognition it needed. The simple fact is it was not shopped around for any merchandising – and that had to be the case long before it wasn’t “tracking” (gawd, I’m learning to loathe that word…) well with the public.

  • According to Nikki Finke, Ike Perlmutter, the Israeli owner of Marvel, is always pestering Iger and micromanages his merchandise and promotions. I bet he really put the heat on when he saw John Carter not do well in the US. The Pixar guys should’ve raised a stink earlier.

  • Glad I have State Farm. Funny how a movie like The Avengers that really doesn’t need much creative marketing with it’s built in fan base gets this kind of focused marketing, while John Carter who was being unveiled to an hungry public for the first time got Disney’s piece of crap middle school marketing effort.

  • So Bass Akwards! Avengers is a shoe in for success, while John Carter needed all those creative tie ins and merchandising and such to make people aware of its coolness! Yep, there has been some serious “junking” going on here and it infuriates me! Well, no wonder we are so passionate in our John Carter Sequel Campaign efforts! I rage at injustice and this is injustice full fledged!!

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