It has been determined that films are not discovered, they are familiarised by the marketers, but the marketers of this film have taken familiarisation one step further and smacked the audience about the face with intense posters. The ads are directly aimed at the target market. Although the film is rated ‘18’ the special DVD is rated ‘15’ this is merely because the marketers know that a younger audience will want to see the film and that the cinema film will not pass 15, so if the DVD is 15 there will be profit from the younger audience. This is why there are fewer ads in the younger public sector such as tabloids and magazines and other adolescent areas of advertisement to attract the younger audience to achieve maximum possible profit and to make the acquainted with all audiences.
There are two main reasons why this film is what it is; it’s because of firstly the million-dollar advertising spent on the film and the superior reputation of Quentin Tarantino known to be detailed violent and exceptional in making a film a cult success.
The first type of marketing, a tangible and noticeable way, is how Miramax (the production company) has used every possible type of marketing in their reach. Trains, Busses, free soundtracks, bright colours that cannot be ignored; it’s practically pushing itself onto us. Everywhere you look or listen you will encounter something to do with Kill Bill. It is like going to view the film has become a social consciousness. Many of the companies used in this marketing are sub-companies of Miramax. For example, Disney owns The Times Newspaper, an admirer of the film, who gave away a free DVD, and Disney also owns Miramax, there are many links like these in between the advertising companies used.
The second type of marketing, an intangible and less noticeable one, is the sampling done by Tarantino, known to be a DJ artist in films. For example in Kill Bill, the yellow tracksuit Thurman wears when she takes on a hundred samurai-sword wielding thugs (a scene reminiscent Keanu Reeve’s battle with 100 agent smiths in ‘The Matrix Reloaded’) is an exact replica of the outfit Bruce Lee wore in ‘Game of Death’. If Kill Bill shows scenes reminiscent of ‘The Matrix Reloaded’, which was a big hit amongst juveniles and adults, it will give Kill Bill that zest that surrounded The Matrix. Furthermore if Uma Thurman goes around swinging swords in Bruce Lee’s outfit it will tell the audience that the film is about martial arts at its finest.
The black and white uniform that the Japanese gangsters wear in Kill Bill is an exact duplication of what the villains in ‘Reservoir Dogs’ wear, Tarantino’s debut film- revered by many. This will give confidence to the audience that this film is going to be of the same standards as Tarantino’s previous blockbusters.
This intellectual sampling style of marketing isn’t the most palpable method, but is manipulative in the way that it relocates the message without the assent of the audience themselves.
All the different marketing techniques used in the marketing of Kill Bill, including free soundtracks in the ‘Times Newspaper’ (popular amongst most adults), have resulted in effective success in building hype greater and greater till the big releasing on the release date that shatters the hype, and the public reviews carry on from there. The marketing effectively reminds the audience of the film everyday and creates anticipation inadvertently. The marketing has lived up to Tarantino’s respected reputation. It has made itself a hit without any critical or public reviews, which’s an admirable achievement in marketing. It has effectively manipulated the audience to go and see the film. It has conveyed the message to the audience that it is the film of the year, a must see, it has marketed Kill Bill fruitfully.
I believe that marketing in this way by having an image of the Kill Bill poster in front of you everyday (in the paper you read, on the bus in front you in the traffic, etc…) is morally wrong, as it is a form of repetitive manipulation, but authentically the marketers have done what is needed to be done to make much profit as possible. Accordingly Kill Bill is a sell-out.
