Marketing WALL-E
30 June 2008
I took my family to see WALL-E on Friday night, one of the rare times we have gone to the theater to see a movie together (it’s expensive and I’m not wealthy). We usually have Family Movie Night every Friday, and it involves popcorn, a pull-out sleeper sofa, PJ’s, and, of course, a movie–at our home. But the new Pixar picture was out and we decided to go see it on opening night in our town.
From what little publicity I’d seen, I expected an animated “Short Circuit,” the lame Ally Sheedy robot-film from the ’80’s. That’s not what I saw on Friday night.
Just before we went to the theater, I looked up the critics’ reviews on Rotten Tomatoes: 97% fresh! Maybe this will be better than I expect.
What I saw on Friday night was technically brilliant, funny, charming, and engaging.
As surprised as I was, then, at the film, I was also surprised that I had no idea it would be that good. Surely the Pixar people could do better marketing than this. In fact, Seth Godin had a riff about that today as well. Maybe choosing to do something other than the obvious is best in this case.
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