After the Campaign, Movie Marketing

After the Campaign: Creed

In my column for Creed I wrote:

I love the fact that Jordan is such a big, important part of the campaign and hasn’t been pushed aside by Stallone as part of a pure nostalgia play by the studio. Not that Rocky isn’t still here in a big way, but it’s clear it’s not his story we’ll be following, it’s Creed’s. While that may not sit well with some longtime fans it will likely go a long way toward attracting a new generation of fans to an original movie featuring talent – both Jordan and Coogler – that are on their way up.

That’s very true of the movie itself. I didn’t find much in the movie that contradicted the campaign outside of the usual array of scenes that were in a trailer but didn’t make the final cut and so on. I will say, though, that there are a variety of things in the movie that weren’t fully represented in the marketing.

creed pic 1

 

The campaign did a good job of not spoiling – indeed in retrospect it barely hinted at – most of the movie’s third act and the character evolution that takes place in the last 45 minutes of the film. That’s a good thing since it means the emotional impact of all that is retained, but I was taken aback by how absent it is from the trailers.

Also, I do think the campaign played down Rocky’s role in the story to some extent. He’s obviously, as I say above, not absent from the campaign but he’s a lot more prevalent in the movie than I was anticipating. Indeed Rocky has almost as much of an emotional story arc through the course of the movie as Creed does. That doesn’t take away from Creed being the central focus of the film but it was a little surprising based on the campaign to see Rocky as featured throughout the film as much as he was.

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