Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen.

This is a little late, but as far as the billboards went, I thought the ad campaign for The Hangover Part II was quite good. A few different variations on this theme. I'm in a bathtub with my clothes on, I'm lying on the floor, my head is shaved, there's a monkey with a denim jacket on, can you not see how crazy we are? The campaign did some of my favorite things: filled the frame without being too busy, utilized actual photos (or were good enough photoshop jobs that I couldn't tell the difference), and also used some really cool lighting schemes.

However, let us take a look at the character posters for THP2, which I mostly saw on bus stops:

Aside from a strange Sixth Sense-esque lens flare behind each of their heads, they're still good-looking posters. But...what are those quotes doing up there? They're not taglines. That's still "THE WOLFPACK IS BACK," hanging out down there beneath the title. These are clearly lines the characters say in the movie, 'cept one thing, we haven't seen the movie yet. You can't prequote your own movie! Don't tell me what lines in your movie are funny. I'll decide that, when and if I see it (I haven't and don't plan to).

Think of your favorite quote from any movie......... Now imagine that quote had been on the poster for that movie, and how much that would cheapen it. These obviously aren't the best lines from the film, but still, don't push your quotes on me. Don't try to make 'fetch' happen.

What if the Billy Madison poster had shown a close up of Billy with one of the film's lesser quotes over his head? Something like, "Man am I glad I called that guy." No matter what quote you used, it would automatically be the lamest line in the movie.

Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've seen prequotes used. Exhibit B:

Remember when I Love You, Man came out, and then everyone was calling each other "Dude von Dudenstein" all the time? No? That's because it didn't happen. (I actually do hear people say "totes magotes" or simply "totes" every once in a while. Aaaaand I always look down on them for it. You said that because a poster told you to. And it's not even funny.)

Let's just hope we're not seeing another tagline-over-the-face-type trend forming here.