Publicity and Promotion

POST-CLASSICAL ADVERTISING

Classical-era advertising did not involve major changes, but rather, consolidated earlier strategies. The industry's control over film advertising faded with the 1948 Supreme Court decision in the Paramount Case finding the major studios in violation of antitrust laws, an event that marked the beginning of the end for classical Hollywood and severed studios from their theater chains. With the rise of television and declining demand for films, theaters increasingly offered a more stripped-down experience. The studios' loss of total control allowed outside intervention in shaping the image of films and stars—especially through the new scandal magazines—just as it opened up independent production and limited studios' control over exhibition. Some changes in advertising—including the appearance of the television spot—arose in response to these post-classical developments. Pressbooks became less important, as many newspapers closed during the post-World War II years. Pressbooks' fake newspaper stories and suggestions for stunts practically disappeared, along with most of their more excessive and exuberant features. Pressbooks today are simple folders printed with the film's promotional images and filled with photos of the cast and a few press releases on the film, its director, and stars. Lobby cards gradually vanished and fewer posters were produced for each film, with photography gradually replacing the original art typical of the silent and classical eras.

By the mid- to late-1950s, stunts reappeared at the margins of the industry, particularly in the low-budget releases aimed at youth audiences. As most films were now marketed as individual entities, studios tried to make each release stand out, using star-studded premieres to boost a movie or, alternatively, masterminding a stunt like that of Marilyn Monroe reenacting the famous skirt scene from The Seven Year Itch (1955) for the international media. Independent producer-directors like William Castle (1914–1977) became notorious for exploitation campaigns that often overshadowed their films. His gimmicks combined older, Barnumesque theater-centered stunts with the promise of heightened visceral realism associated with the period's new movie technologies (like 3-D and Cinerama). Even major studio campaigns used stunts to create new cinematic experiences: the print ads, trailers, posters, and television spots for Psycho (1960) proclaimed that viewers would not be admitted ten minutes after the film started, focusing attention on the first scenes, a tactic that made Marion Crane's death even more shocking. Before Psycho , audiences were reportedly less likely to watch a film from the very start, thus its advertising marked a post-classical shift in reception, singling out the individual film as a distinct event.