More on Stop-Loss’ “Don’t mention the war” strategy

The LA Times has another piece on Stop-Loss and how its marketing campaign almost completely excises all mentions of the war in Iraq, which is actually one of the central plot drivers in the film.

The story comes to the same conclusion, that Paramount is trying to avoid talking about the way so as not to turn away the young audience it’s counting on, an audience that might be turned off by the movie being presented as a moralistic lecture.

The mass media campaign runs counter to the online effort, which has a section about the war and the reactions of those left behind by soldiers abroad, promenently displayed. I guess the assumption is that the kids being targeted aren’t going to pay attention to it if it’s not on MySpace of Facebook, which might actually be correct.

The thing is those kids are also the ones most likely to come out of the movie and, feeling disappointed or honked off, start texting their friends telling them to avoid it. So the tactic may work for opening night, but it’s not going to last much past 7:30PM or so, by which word will have spread.