Bad Movie Marketing vs Bad Media Literacy
A role of tickets. Photo by igorovsyannykov via Pixabay.
The lights go down, and the movie screen lights up. Nicole Kidman is talking about the magic of movies while your hand is deep in buttery popcorn. All of a sudden, Timotheé Chalamet is singing about… chocolate?
With the recent release of the films Wonka and Mean Girls, moviegoers are a little confused surrounding the sudden spike in movie musicals. They weren’t expecting their movie experience to be fueled by strong ballads accompanied by intermittent dance breaks. How did these prominent musical aspects get lost in translation from trailer to movie screen, confusing audiences when Renee Rapp was singing about wanting to watch the world burn?
I re-watched the official trailers for both Wonka and Mean Girls, and I also looked at some other promotional content before both films were released. Based on what I was seeing online, I expected the trailers and promotional content to not have any musical aspects whatsoever. However, I was proven wrong in my research and decided that there was a bigger problem on our hands. The issue is not with the marketing of these movies: Gen Z might not be as media literate as they think they are. Or they’re just not paying attention.
Media literacy is the ability to decode, analyze, and evaluate media to get to its true meaning. While I’m not saying these movies have some deep symbolic meaning, their premises are clear-cut.
After watching the trailers and related promotions, it seems obvious these movies would have strong musical elements. Throughout all the trailers I watched, multiple members of the respective casts were dancing and breaking out into song. While it may not be as openly displayed, the musical elements are acknowledged in their trailers and promotions.
Gen Z’s lack of media literacy is double-sided in both understanding the marketing of these new films as well as the pieces of media that came before. Chalamet’s portrayal of the famed fictional chocolatier was the third reprisal of the role, with Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp taking a stab at the character in earlier films in both 1971 and 2005.
As for Mean Girls, it is the third reincarnation in the past decade, with the 2004 movie and the Broadway musical using the same plots. But this is where the issue arises. For instance, the previous movies about Willy Wonka were filled with musical numbers as the characters explored the chocolate factory. Chalamet wasn’t flipping the script by singing in this one.
For Mean Girls, there was already a successful Broadway musical which the new movie drew inspiration from. Reneé Rapp, who plays Regina George, played the famous character in the musical and reprised her role in the new movie. Audiences are confused by these sudden musical movies, yet have not taken the time to analyze and learn about the movies they are watching.
Not only did the clear musical elements go unnoticed, the history of these films did as well. It is not shocking that these movies were musicals. However, it is shocking how Gen Z missed it and blamed it on the marketing teams.