While we appreciate the earnest viral efforts of studio marketers on behalf of Cloverfield, The Dark Knight and even half-assed fare like Quarantine, there's a strangely revolting quality to the derisive, almost misogynist analog throwback accompanying the new Apatow Assembly Line comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. So much so that a mad bomber is fighting off those Universal billboards and bus placards with a guerilla campaign that we can't determine is the real deal or just some second wave of the studio's low-concept offensive. Help us decide after the jump.

Jaded as we can be, the actual human in us does bristle a wee bit at the tasteful YES YOU LOOK FAT IN THOSE JEANS SARAH MARSHALL and I HATE YOU SARAH MARSHALL plugs scrawled all over our nation's metropolitan hubs. We'd love to think the anonymous San Francisco reactions picked up Tuesday by Hollywood Elsewhere are simply meta-culture critiques of media saturation and the General Absurdity of It All. Still, we wouldn't put it past the postmodern jokers at Uni to have stripped a batch of interns of their ID's, put $50 cash in their pockets and quietly sent them out like Watergate plumbers to fight their nasty word-of-mouth against trees, street lamps and anything else tape will stick to. Either way, we're guessing the real Sarah Marshalls of the world are considering viral marketing overall the stupidest idea ever right about now.

Bay Area 'Sarah' Backlash? [Hollywood Elsewhere]

9:00 AM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By STV
4,191 views
16 comments

Comments

ricker at 09:34 AM on 03/26/08
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I think I'm going to forget to see Sarah Marshall.
switchbladesister at 09:48 AM on 03/26/08
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It's really saying something when a movie can annoy the shit out of me before I've even heard of it.
Greasy Thumb Guzik at 09:50 AM on 03/26/08
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I don't get teaser ads anymore.
All you have to do now is got to the Interweb & Google the stupid phrases in the tease & find out what it is.

And Sarah Marshall looks to be a major flop!
Plankton420 at 10:02 AM on 03/26/08
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Okay, this has been driving me crazy since those "Sarah Marshall" ads started going up:

Grammatically speaking, shouldn't there be a COMMA before Sarah Marshall's name, as in, "I'm so over you[COMMA] Sarah Marshall" or "My mother never liked you[COMMA] Sarah Marshall"?

I'm all for a good viral marketing campaign, and I am very happy to see Jason Segel get himself a starring roll in something, but please -- can't we at least use proper grammar in the only things most American's actually read? (Billboards and bus ads...)
CourageousCoward at 10:03 AM on 03/26/08
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Methinks he doth protest too much.
ophthalmologist at 10:42 AM on 03/26/08
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This clarifies the myth that they're more environmentally sensitive in SF. Will the spoofster return to this tree to remove the sign and tape, or leave it to rot in the rain. Viral "marketing" and it's aftermath are generally a blight.
Wendy_Kroy at 11:24 AM on 03/26/08
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@Greasy Thumb Guzik: That's kind of the point. By searching for this stuff online, you become actively engaged in their marketing efforts, which is the golden ideal for all sales campaigns.

Anyway, the word on Sarah Marshall is that it's actually pretty good. Variety loved it, and the buzz from SXSW was positive, too.
metroville at 12:06 PM on 03/26/08
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I'm more interested in seeing that tree than I am that movie.
judithvansteppes at 12:29 PM on 03/26/08
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I, for one, am not over trees. I am getting bored of the well-termed 'almost misogyny' of the 'Apatow assembly line'. That man is the reason we need another Bend it Like Beckham.
And I am waiting for a teen movie about a girl who wears a suit to her bat-mitzvah.
OldTowneTavern at 01:18 PM on 03/26/08
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What misogyny in the Apatow assembly line? Look girls rub their periods on guy's legs constantly and it's high time we were shamed out of this lewd behavior. It's courageous, I say.
Leviticus_71 at 01:57 PM on 03/26/08
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@OldTowneTavern: So true...and I really can't tell you how many times I've wowed a group of drunk Fratties Geeking Up a Pile of Booger Sugar with my stirring rendition of "These Eyes."
blackheartededitor at 02:01 PM on 03/26/08
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Dear Hollywood:
When the first word in your movie title is a gerund, I know it's going to suck.

Just a tip.
metroville at 02:24 PM on 03/26/08
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@blackheartededitor: I'll thank you to not speak ill of Gleaming the Cube.
OldTowneTavern at 02:41 PM on 03/26/08
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Not to mention "Returning of the Jedi".
Greasy Thumb Guzik at 04:01 PM on 03/26/08
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@Wendy_Kroy:
I positively hate viral marketing!

But it doesn't work with me, I feel used & thrown under the train like one of Spitzer's hookers & get pissed off when I find out what I was used for!

And while I like most of the actors in 'Sarah Marshall', this is Jason Segel's first writing job & Nicholas Stoller's first directing job.
Stoller has been responsible for shit like the idiotic remake of 'Fun With Dick and Jane'.
That's not a great track record to go on.
Calraigh at 05:44 PM on 03/29/08
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Connectedness Index: 427

@OldTowneTavern: Oh god yeah,I forgot about that scene.I think maybe because I wanted to instantly scrub it from my mind.They really lost me after that.I just had no words.I mean if it was based on a real-life happening, ok, god, how embarassing, but to make it up?For filmic purposes?Either way, it's just not funny.In fact, periods aren't funny.Simon Pegg also has a particularly horrific take on a period joke and that really made me go off him as well because he told it to Dawn French with such glee.It's on YouTube and it''s awful.Sigh.Moving on..