These posts celebrate the movie trailers, movie posters, commercials, print ads, and other promotional material that stand as their own works of art. 

I worked at a five-screen movie theater through much of the first half of the nineteen-nineties. I eventually cajoled my way into responsibilities in the booth, taping together the feature prints that came in every week. That also gave me authority over the trailers that preceded those films. I can’t pull up specific stats, but I feel fairly confident that I attached the teaser trailer for Barry Levinson’s Toys at a ratio that exceeded all others. I certainly hope I had the sense to never let it be the first trailer in a cluster.

In retrospect, it’s mostly amazing that this method of promotion wasn’t employed more often when the not-so-secret weapon of Robin Williams was at hand.

Other entries in this series can be found by clicking on the “Art of the Sell” tag.