Movie Marketing Madness: Happy Go Lucky

Let’s be honest: There’s at least one person in your social circle, whether it’s a personal or professional acquaintance, that is so consistently upbeat and cheerful you probably fight the urge to slap them every time you encounter them. After all, you’re a realist and know that the world is a depressing, spirit draining place and anyone who can’t see that must obviously be not just ignorant but either willfully ignorant or completely off their nut.

Poppy is one of those people.

Poppy is the main focus of Happy-Go-Lucky, the new film from director Mike Leigh. A kindergarten teacher, she’s irrepressibly happy about her life as she bounces from one thing to another, much to the consternation of those around her. No matter what comes through her life she refuses to be beaten down and instead tries to raise the spirits of those around her.

This is…let’s just call it unusual territory for someone like Leigh. His body of work as a director shows a tendency to find the things that go wrong in life. But Happy-Go-Lucky’s campaign presents a different sort of perspective on things than the average Leigh fan might expect. Let’s see what it looks like.

The Posters

Only one poster was created by Miramax, but it’s one that almost perfectly encapsulates the movie’s spirit. The simple-looking artwork that shows a cheerful young woman bouncing on a smiley-face trampoline is evocative of, with its pink background, of something like a stylish and and fashionable perfume ad or something. It’s the kind of image you’d expect to see advertising a beauty or lifestyle product that’s aimed at hip young women looking to hang onto a girlish look or feeling.

The poster, at the top of the design, proclaims the various film festivals the movie has appeared at, the usual appeal to the independent film crowd that considers these as a stamp of approval by judges of serious films. That elite credibility, though, is somewhat undermined by the fact that the pull quotes are from populist sources like USA Today and Yahoo.com. Not that they aren’t valid opinions, but they’re not exactly where cinephiles are turning to for news and recommendations. I’m tempted to say this speaks to a problem other critics might have had with the movie but a quick scan of reviews doesn’t bare that out. Instead this could be an attempt to appeal to a more mainstream audience by presenting opinions from sources they might be more comfortable and familiar with.

Overall it’s a good poster that communicates the film’s spirit pretty effectively, though the plot is completely lacking. That’s alright, though, since the plot appears to be paper thin as the film is largely about spirit.

The Trailers

Thoroughly charming is the best word to describe the movie’s trailer. It introduces us to Poppy, the main character, and her life’s work of trying to put the best and most positive attitude toward everything and everyone in her life, despite their best efforts to introduce some skepticism to her world-view. It’s light and airy and winning, as long as you can get past the mental block that the character is essentially a British version of Phoebe from “Friends.” That’s maybe an unfair comparison but it keeps coming back to me so I’m sticking with it.

Online

The movie’s official website mimic’s the poster’s look and feel, with the addition being that the little figure on the trampoline is actually bouncing up and down. (I’m tempted to make a “Man Show” reference here but her physical attributes wouldn’t get her in the door to be one of the bouncing girls they often featured. Let’s just move on.)

The first cherry in the graphic at the top takes you to “About the Film.” Therein lies a pretty simple synopsis of the film that includes notes on its plot as well as background and promotional language for Leigh and his stars in the movie.

“Cast & Crew” contains the usual sorts of information on the actors and the filmmakers, including their role in the film and their history. Interestingly Leigh is not listed among the Filmmakers, probably because he already gets his due in the synopsis in the previous section.

Under “Video” you’ll find the movie’s one trailer as well as three short clips from the film, two of which take place in the driving instruction sequences that, if I’ve reading things correctly, present the biggest challenge to Poppy’s emotional well-being. They certainly give you a sense of the movie’s style and characters and go a long way toward making the film seem funny and approachable to the audience.

Rounding out the site are just five photos in the “Gallery” and a handful of AIM Icons and Wallpapers under “Downloads.”

The movie also has a Facebook fan page that contains much of the official site’s content on it. There are video clips, photos and a synopsis.

Available on both the official site and the Facebook page is a widget that contains most of the main sections from the official site as well as The Daily Dose of Happiness, which is an inspirational quote that’s in-line with the main character’s life philosophy.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Nothing that I’ve come across and nothing that’s on the site. It’s not exactly the kind of movie that lends itself to a bunch of tie-ins or anything and I don’t think I’ve seen anything online or on TV and don’t remember reading anything about this.

Media and Publicity

Much of the movie’s publicity came from its appearances at various film festivals, including Telluride and Toronto. Much of it was talking about Leigh’s departure from more gritty subject matter and the solid performance by Hawkins. On the converse side of that is Karina’s comment during the latest episode of FilmCouch (#90) where she says she wanted to kill the main character.

Overall

All in all this is a nicely charming campaign, if a slight one. That’s not a knock against it since I know this is a smaller-scale film, I’m just saying it’s not in any way going to be mistaken for a full-court press.

That being said I do like it quite a bit. Moving past the visual similarities of the poster and the website there’s an overall spirit that’s consistent in all of the campaign’s elements that creates a unified brand presence that I like quite a bit. It’s a quaint campaign that dosn’t aspire to be a whole lot and achieves that quite well.