A couple Friday nights ago, I was at Carnegie Hall listening to the Philadelphia Symphony play … and I looked over at the box next to me where I see none other than Jon Polito who played Johnny Caspar in the Cohen Brother’s Miller’s Crossing. I thought, how appropriate, that a few weeks after the 20thAnnual Golden Trailer Awards, here I am sitting near an actor who was in one of the earliest memories of an effective tv teaser campaign for me.
So, circa 1990, my little brother and I were up late one night watching ‘illegal tv’. See, we grew up in a strict household and we were only allowed a half an hour of tv a night but when we could sneak TV … we would. And sneaking down and watching television after our parents had gone to bed had the sweet feeling of getting away with something BIG!
Late one night whilst watching MTV (the most illicit of the ‘illegal tv’ drugs) a simple teaser came on … it was a hat blowing down a trail and then just simply ended. My brother and I were floored. We both sat there … silent …. reflective … and then we both exclaimed – “what the heck was that?” – We had to investigate, we had to know, we had to see that film!
Millers Crossing Teaser from Daily Trailer! on Vimeo.
And we were sold on the new Cohen Brother’s movie, even though the themes were way above our capacity to understand. So as I sat there the other night at Carnegie Hall, I wanted to go say something to Jon Polito. He has no idea how that teaser, for that movie, set into motion a chain of events that lead to a life-long love and appreciation for movie marketing.
So this teaser is to Daily Trailer, what the Buggle’s video was to MTV … the first one … as this is the first teaser of memorial note to me. Trailer’s Rule! – DT
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