ChristineCB

With the Region-1 release of BEDAZZLED soon upon North America, I am SHOCKED at the idiocy of the DVD cover's art and statements:

Amazon.com: Bedazzled: DVD: Peter Cook,Dudley Moore,Eleanor Bron,Raquel Welch,Alba,Robert Russell (II),Barry Humphries,Parnell McGarry,Danièle Noël,Howard Goorney,Michael Bates,Bernard Spear,Robin Hawdon,Michael Trubshawe,Evelyn Moore,Charles Lloyd P

I know they want to put cleavage wherever possible, and I'm sure the choice was "To make the Cook-Moore image larger, or Raquel's cleavage larger?" And we KNOW which one will draw more attention from the male buyers in Amerca.

OK. Fine. The fact that she's got - what? 4 or 5 appearances, barely more than 20 seconds per appearance - has nothing to do with it. The American consumer is used to being lied to by images versus content. So no buyer will complain that her twice-the-image-size is a lie to the proportion of the screen-time she gets.

My BIGGEST complaint, however, is the marketing blurb,

"SMARTLY STYLED".

Who in the world would EVER claim that? Why would any marketing person EVER print that? What the heck does it mean? Raquel's hair is smartly styled? Her beads are smartly styled? Cook's hair is? Dudley's apron?

When a MALE PROSPECT sees this cover and sees Raquel, her legs and cleavage - yum yum. Then he reads, "Smartly styled".

Uh. What's he going to think? "Gee, my homophobia kicks in and I'll just put it back on the shelf. I'm not going to spend my real money on conflicting cover-art."

Or is he going to say, "Stanley Donen? Isn't he some musical director, with all those male dancers? And we KNOW what male dancers mean. And despite this great cleavage, I'm not going to walk thru the check-out line and have the teenager look at me buying a Smartly Styled DVD."

In short, one of the excellent comedies - so good that the Americans HAD to remake it eventually - will languish in idiotically confusing marketing.

If I was going to do Tits & Ass Marketing, I'd have a single shot of her plumped back onto the bed in her red undies, in full close-up, and forget those Cook and Dudley fellows. If Cleavage is all it takes, then admit it and do it RIGHT.

Unfortunately, for some American consumer who's never seen this film and watches it once, they'll put the DVD back on their shelf and think, "Boy, what a lie - Raquel's barely in this picture!!"

Dumb dumb dumb.

ChristineCB

And I know they could have done worse... they could have chosen the hokey cartoon-fly image and plastered that up there.

Harleybloke

The delicious Miss Hurley.....................

penfold

But probably an improvement on this DVD cover...same designer perhaps?? I know it's one of Christine's favourites too... Image: Funny Bones: Oliver Platt,Jerry Lewis,Lee Evans,Leslie Caron,Richard Griffiths,Oliver Reed,Sadie Corre,George Carl,Freddie Davies,Ian McNeice,Christopher Greet,Peter Gunn,Gavin Millar,William Hootkins,Terence Rigby,Ruta Lee,Peter Pamela Rose,T

Bit of a Bay Window, what??

ChristineCB

Pen, I don't find the FUNNY BONES designs nearly as off-putting or contra-truth. FUNNY BONES is too rich in content to ever have single photos or snippets capture all of them, and much like lovely Raquel's cleavage, I know that pasting Jerry Lewis front and center is the marketeers' eye-catching hope.

If they'd have used the phrase "Smartly Styled" on most films, however, it would be like an anvil around the neck to just about every shopper drawn to cleavage, though.

The DVD has been a fast seller at the two nearby stores, although the store clerks say everyone who's buying it know the film already. I sure hope the DVD Marketeers didn't pay too much money for that phrase!