Civil War's Marketing stirs up a fuss
A deep delve into A24's social media roll out for Alex Garland's latest + recent film marketing headlines
Alex Garland’s Civil War, released on 12 April to surprising box office success (for an indie tackling a VERY delicate subject…) ratcheting up $27 million domestic ($30 million globally) in its opening weekend, and making it A24s biggest opening weekend in the cult distributor / production house’s history.
The war has carried over into its marketing with a clever, tactical social media approach fuelled by debate-sparking, controversy-stirring content that probes the film’s themes in very layered ways and - just like the movie - never tells its audience what to think, but lets them decide where they stand.
The bulk of the marketing plays on how much we are manipulated by media (it’s a film about war reporting, after all), how much we are stoked to divisiveness by social media, how we are shaped by how/what messages are communicated to us.
Sophisticated and bold moves that show us in our true colours.
It all started with a map…
One of the earliest teasers dropped in April showed a map of the US broken into warring “faction states”: Western Forces, Florida Alliance, New People’s Army, etc. with no context or explanation given, allowing the audience to draw conclusions and set up their own battle-lines in the comments.
The added ire-stoking of pitting together two states (Texas and California) that in the real USA are least likely to work together seems to have upset people the most, even though this is a work of fiction, and doesn’t explicitly mention existing parties.
If anything it reinforces the idea that nothing unites disparate people more than a common enemy (my enemy’s enemy is my friend, etc.)
This first post also kicks off the overall trend of the content: getting people to reveal themselves, holding a mirror up to existing divisions across America - even though the film doesn’t posit a side, deliberately so.
(FYI re: the film… for me, it’s about the inhumanity and insanity of war, the utter chaos when “sides” no longer have any meaning, the challenge of war reporting and neutrality. It is NOT about Democrats vs. Republicans, or left vs right, which would be too facile and cliché - this isn’t a Marvel movie)
The trailers focused on the broader-appeal elements of the film: the battle scenes and gunfire, familiar cityscapes and a President in jeopardy, rather than dwelling on the more philosophical “arthouse” themes of the film. This ensured wide reach and interest across the political / social spectrum.
We then get another post that asked audiences to “reveal themselves”, this time via a UGC app allowing you to create your own ‘toy soldier’, or 3D figurine, based on a character you make up. The caption is deliberately provoking, it’s not “make your own Civil War character”, but rather “What kind of American are you?”.
It’s a bold move in the current climate (Twitter critics love to accuse the film of stoking war), but if anything, it reveals what already exists in society, it’s the mirror on the wall, a warning cry.
Next up, the discussion-baiting review screenshots, and the tongue-in-cheek caption. We are shown a snapshot of our current media landscape in a nutshell. A top-line insight into how we are fed stories, how we are communicated to. Another reminder of how media controls and shapes narratives.
And then we get to the AI post.
Which caused ruptured eye-balls all round it seems, and a level of rage that goes far above and beyond anything I’ve seen in response to a manipulated photo. The social post showed a series of imagined posters of American cities decimated by war.
They are deliberately eerie, fake looking and surreal, and any consideration of a deeper idea behind this gave instant way to screaming outrage.
My take:
The marketing team did one social media post where the (paid) creative designer used an AI tool - just as MANY paid designers are using in different ways (as a support tool along with Photoshop, etc).
Both the film, and the marketing hinge around what a 2024 civil war might look like. And guess what? As we already know, manipulated imagery, disinformation, deepfakes, AI trickery and fake news are ALREADY being used as political weapons, we’ve had Cambridge Analytica, we’ve had the Kate Middleton AI image bonkersness that we now know was stoked by Russian bot farms, we have Israel openly using AI in the war on Gaza.
The use of manipulative AI for this *one single* social post is making a directly relevant comment on the themes of the film. It’s showing us how dangerous it is, it’s deliberately showing us trickery and obfuscation, fake war images to cause us to double take and question. In my opinion, one of the cleverest piece of content in this campaign (I think I’m a lone wolf on this one!)
Traditional marketing tactics that worked a gem
In addition to the above content roll out, A24 also played to its traditional strengths: Amazing, collectable merch that’s too cool for school - including the box of soldiers sent to key influencers for partner content:
They news-jacked with speed and relevance:
They took over landmarks with large scale out of home:
They shared real reviews by audience members:
Of course, this is a delicate year. We are all on tenterhooks ahead of the November election. Is that a reason not to release a divisive war movie? No. This is the job of cinema, hold us to account, make us think critically, make us ask deep questions and face our demons. I know this film will be hated by many. I absolutely loved it.
And I firmly believe the mass debate it has started online is a big factor in what’s driving the curiosity and visitation. Nothing sparks interest more than petty spats over “controversial” movies online! 🤣
Film marketing news in brief:
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France embraces “eventising” movie releases to drive box office
Godzilla vs Kong’s Roblox campaign targets younger audiences with an interactive, playable trailer
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