Censorship really is the best publicity when marketing an indie film against Hollywood studio competition.
Torontonians awoke Thursday this week to news that Astral Media had taken down 38 posters for the Canadian hockey comedy Goon that featured star Jay Baruchel making a lewd fingers-and-tongue gesture.
News accounts were sketchy, however, on who ordered the posters’ removal.
Alliance Films said in a statement that the City of Toronto deemed the posters “inappropriate,” and “demanded the removal.”
Astral Media, on the other hand, said in a statement that it received complaints about the movie poster as well, and decided to remove them in consultation with the city.
And following “consultations with City officials,” the company decided to replace the offending Goon poster with one of two other posters created for the campaign.
Alliance Films claimed it “received neither prior notice nor any explanation as to why” the posters were removed.
Astral Media tells its differently: “The client was immediately made aware of the complaints and of the ensuing actions that were taken.”
Was it consultation or coercion, then, that led to the removal of the offending posters?
Certainly the latter claim is more to the Hollywood playbook: submit a controversial TV commercial or movie poster, a TV network or movie theater rejects the ad, or replaces it after complaints; the film distributor cries foul and the media picks up on the censorship claims.
If anything, it’s free publicity to help fuel box office receipts, not least because, in the age of the internet, what public officials censor by removal inevitably becomes more widely available online.
Political campaign strategists know well that any offending TV commercial goes straight to YouTube for repeated viewing, and the Goon movie poster went viral on Thursday on blogs and websites.
What’s even more providential about the Goon posters incident is they were up for two weeks in Toronto bus shelters before the hornet’s nest was stirred and they were taken down Wednesday – just hours before the hockey comedy had a red carpet premiere in the city.
For Alliance Films, it’s a win-win.
Whether it was the City of Toronto or Astral Media that ultimately decided to remove the offending Goon poster from 38 bus shelters, thanks to the internet, more people will view Jay Baruchel’s lewd poster pose before the Canadian film debuts this weekend at the local multiplex.
From Playback Daily
