Arrival Film Poster Blunder?

#1

So a new scifi film called Arrival, released some promotional posters, however one particular poster featured an image of Hong Kong but Shanghai’s Oriental Pearl Tower was composited onto the image. Of course some HK citizens were unhappy, as there’s been tensions over it’s governance. However as someone not too concerned about their politics, I wonder was it necessary to stick such a famous building onto the image? Did they think “oh stick a Chinese building in”, just to show it’s china? They must really think that the audiences are dumb.

In any case, they had a Shanghai poster made too anyways, which actually looks even better, so why spend the extra time and effort to composite a building, when you had an image that has the building already in it? Is it a step too far with compositing?

#2

I think the operating word here is “oversight” rather than blunder.

This is probably Non Chinese/Non Hong Kong people making a poster and thinking: “Eh… It looks better with that building in it.” Without thinking about anyone possibly being offended.

#3

Hmm…yeah ‘oversght’ is what I’d go with. Basically in all intents and purposes, you could surnmise a bit of overzealousness marketing wise, to be perfectly honest.

#4

people get butthurt way too easy. Probably they don’t have real problems anymore.
One can’t even utter the world “bleumarin” without offending a quarter million of people.

Rant aside, I have a friend in Paris who makes dvd covvers, movie posters - and the time she gerts for any piece is very limited (shocking, I know). Of course these kinds of blunders will happen if everybody has to do everything in minutes.

#5

Thats not an excuse.
Would you put the Empire state building or Crysler building into a shot of Paris?
Would you put the Eiffel tower onto the skyline of Berlin or the Berlin TV-tower behind the Buckingham palace?
Of course you wouldn’t because its stupid.*

So the exact same thing is true for placing the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower into Hongkongs Skyline.

*Unless there is an explanation like parallel universe or maybe the aliens shuffle the landmarks around because they don’t like our sense of architecture

#6

Those people have all the right to be offended. It’s about them, about their country, their surroundings, their history, their social landscape. Those worries exist to them, and are important to them. No one can decide in their place what is important in their lives and how they should feel. You’re dismissing the importance of an entire population, denying their right to feel, express themselves and by extension simply exist.

You don’t feel it’s important and wouldn’t care if something like this happened in your country? Great. That’s a decision you took, for your life. No one has the responsibility to uphold your decisions. All they can do is respect it and expect the same from you. You work in entertainment after all, communication. Empathy is mandatory to awe, move and win another humans.

#7

Well, lots of comedians already ranted about the current situation.
People used to laugh to jokes. Not anymore. Self important people are up in arms and always on the lookout to be offended. I am all for empathy and respect and communication, but the other party should be willing to participate. You simply can’t do anything with people who are there only to criticize and dismiss.

Here is a very very short list of possibly offensive things in movies:

  • explosions and visible flames in space - complete disregard for physics
  • meta humans, x-men - utter disrespect to biology and how evolution actually works
  • security camera footage gets enhanced to show reflection on the eyeball, originally 0.2 pixels in size. - offensive for every cg artist for obvious reasons
  • hackers who get into servers in seconds from a 15 years old mobile phone
  • bad guys explaining things to protagonists in a lengthy monologue
  • Borat
  • Citizen Cane

You see, one has plenty of opportunities to be offended, if he wants to. Why should building related offenses matter and not other? The entire industry is based on nonsense, didn’t you notice?

#8

Funny, I don’t remember this thread being about comedians. You can’t expect to work with humor the same what you do with PR, to which marketing is linked—and so are posters by extension. Humor is storytelling, so are movie plots. It also has to have a limit, but that’s another discussion that would further derail this thread.

In any case, I can only wish you the best of luck. I have a pretty strict view on being respectful and I foresee a long, unpleasant and pointless exchange if we attempt to take this discussion any further, therefore I’m stopping here. (:

#9

Well there was the time Reebok (a UK company) had to recall a T-Shirt for “Ireland” that removed Northern Ireland from the rest of Ireland.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2015/10/21/9583204/reebok-blames-design-error-for-controversial-ufc-ireland-t-shirt

It depends I guess on the level of awareness of people making stuff.

#10

Yes and anyone I know here who seen it were pissed off. Reebok isn’t too popular here already because of the Union Jack stuck on their shoes which we won’t purchase, so deleting the Irish Republic off that shirt just made them more unpopular.
PR people need to get promotional stuff right, think before they act. Putting the Brandenburg Gate into a movie poster image of Paris would be seen as insensitive at the very least, and the poster above is no different in that regard.

#11

Agreed, i know too many people who troll the internet searching for a cause, a reason to be offended etc … It’s a effing movie poster! lol … Honestly if a Japanese production company released a poster of Big Ben in Paris, i’d laugh my ass off! Lifes too short to be offended all the time :slight_smile:

Relax, take a few deep breathes, smell some flowers, watch a video of a kitty jumping from a window!
//youtu.be/3-kRryGQtso

oh my! posting that link just wasted 30 mins of my day!!

//youtu.be/O1KW3ZkLtuo

#12

No one sees the comedy in “why are they here?” maybe the poster refers to the buildings… :slight_smile:

#13

Yes, to put it less lightly I agree. People being offended is their own issue, personally, “I am offended they are offended” …but mostly, I am offended by the horrible image compression of their images, its such an offense to the artist who worked on it. Just kidding, I am not offended, that would be silly, and my own issue, not theirs. If its something hateful, or malicious, that’s very different, but this is far from that.