An open letter to The Change-Up advertising campaign

[seriousfic]

I can't help but notice that your entire marketing seems to be comprised of a single image, or rather two. In one half, Jason Bateman is harried in dealing with two babes (as in, infants) at once, while in the other, Ryan Reynolds is delighted to have attracted the attention of two "babes" (as in, attractive grown women) at once. While I congratulate you on this delightful visual pun, since the premise of your movie is a body-swap, wouldn't it make more sense to depict Ryan Reynolds unenthused about being in the process of caring for two children, while Jason Bateman is apparently about to have a threesome? Given that Ryan Reynolds always plays a himbo and Jason Bateman always plays a harried everyman, your prospective audience wouldn't know what to make of this juxtaposition, and they would have to see the movie to find out what's going on.

Look at this Freaky Friday image. Right there we have a striking image of Jamie Lee Curtis as a punk rocker and Lindsey Lohan as a responsible adult--something we wouldn't expect to see.


Although the fact that Jamie Lee Curtis has killed Michael Myers five times is pretty punk rock.

Looking at the poster for The Change-Up, I have no idea what the premise is. It could be a Green Lantern movie with Jason Bateman as the villain. I don't know!