Newest TV Spot Basically Sells Avatar as a Disney Movie

Thanks to our friends at Slashfilm, we have a new TV spot for James Cameron’s Avatar. Usually a simple TV spot wouldn’t be that newsworthy to us, especially since there’s already been a few for this film, but this one is unique and shows an interesting trend in the different spots. Take a look at the trailer to see what I mean:





As if the comparisons to FernGully (also produced by 20th Century Fox) weren’t already rampant on the internet, it seems like Fox is trying to push that comparison. As Peter from Slashfilm notes, we’ve already seen marketing towards movie geeks and regular guys, so now here’s the kid-friendly marketing. It has the whole “enter a world” spiel, plus it pushed the 3D concept for than ever.


The fact the marketing sort of dumbs down the film for kids doesn’t surprise me, because it’s common, but what I don’t like it is how with each glimpse of the film, we get a different idea of what the film is really about. Is it about the world, the war, the addiction, the love, the 3D or what? I understand they want to reach the broadest audience possible to make up their $500 million budget, but if no really gets the film, they won’t go anyway (see: Surrogates). What do you think about the trailer and conflicting marketing plans?


James Cameron’s Avatar opens nationwide December 18th in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D. For more information on the film and its viral campaign, check out our Avatar page.