Corporate malfeasance is always a ripe topic for books and movies. The tale of someone within an company – which as an organization is already assumed to be acting from purely selfish motives – then adding their own selfishness on top of that and bilking or misleading not only the company but the public as well gives the audience a comforting sense of righteous indignation. Countless such tales have been told, with The Insider, Michael Mann’s film about a cigarette industry whistleblower and the ensuing “60 Minutes” debacle over reporting it being an example of one of the best.
Now The Informant, starring Matt Damon and directed by Steven Soderbergh, enters the picture. Based on a true story, Damon stars as Mark Whitacre, a mid-level executive at ADM, one of the largest food companies in the U.S. Whitacre has discovered wrongdoing within the company and agrees to wear an FBI wire to expose those bad practices, a role he believes will result in a promotion within the company.
Instead of being a dramatic recounting of these events, though, The Informant plants its tongue firmly in cheek and, as we’ll see from the marketing campaign, takes a lighter and funnier tone in telling Whitacre’s story, which doesn’t turn out like he thought it would.
The Posters
Matt Damon certainly looks enthusiastic in this poster as he glares optimistically toward the sky, with his mustache taking up somewhere around 75 percent of the poster’s real estate. It’s a ridiculous poster but also has some fun design elements, including the fact that “Unbelievable” is broken up because the size of the type used is just too big for the one-sheet. There’s also the fact that “The Informant” has an exclamation point after it, making you say it as “The Informant!” which just sounds funny in your head.
There’s also the fact that the poster sports not just the URL for the movie’s official website but also to a site run by Participant Media, a co-producer on the movie. But more on that later.
The second poster took a Saul Bass approach to the design, with a clearly Bass-inspired shadow image of Damon looming in back of him that looks every bit as ridiculous making a “NA NA NA NA” motion as Damon himself looks preposterously serious in front of it. This one appears slightly more geared toward a bigger audience since the top of the poster makes it clear this is from the director of Soderbergh’s three most commercial recent films, the three Ocean’s movies. It also plays does away with things that appeared on the first poster like the string of URLs for people to visit, so I think it’s clear this is a more mass-audience appeal that’s being made here.
The Trailers
The trailer is just ridiculous – and very funny. It plays like a surreal version of Michael Mann’s The Insider, with Damon playing the corporate middle-manager who’s so upset about the goings-on within his company that he turns government informer to expose those practices. Unfortunately he’s not all that competent as a corporate spy and tends to brag about what he’s doing, neither of which endear him to his federal handlers. But he still has aspirations to run the company, not seeing that being part of bringing it down might not be the best thing to do along that ladder to the top.
The trailer lays out the story pretty well but is meant to be fast paced and funny, positioning the film as more entertaining that educational, despite the disclaimer that it’s based on true events. The clip at which things fly by though, combined with Damon’s apparent go-for-broke performance, achieve that goal.
Online
The official website opens up not on a static page but immediately pushes you in to the “Trailer” section and immediately begins playing that trailer, which is definitely worth re-watching since it’s very funny.
Up first is “About,” which has a good Synopsis that not only gives a recap of the story but also continues to clue you in to the tone the film takes by being pretty funny. Cast and Filmmakers contain bios on those folks who made the movie and if you want you can download a PDF file containing Production Notes that go a little more in-depth on things.
“Videos” contains both the one trailer and three TV Spots, each of which works in its own right just like the trailer does. There are about 24 photos that you can check out in the “Gallery” and the usual mix of Wallpapers, Buddy Icons and a Screensaver under “Downloads.”
You can check out some of the music from the movie under “Soundtrack” and even get some music sent to your cell phone by following the text messaging instructions. There’s also a “Soundboard” that has some audio clips from the movie that you can either play or download.
Finally, “Promotions” contains links to both the official Warner Bros. sweepstakes page where you can enter to win some movie-branded swag as well as to other sites that participated by running their own contests and sweepstakes.
The movie’s Facebook page has much of the usual content – photos, videos and such – as well as links and announcement about some of the publicity Damon has been doing to promote the film.
Advertising and Cross-Promotions
Aside from the sites that were helping by running contests there weren’t, to my knowledge, any promotional partners to speak of. Considering the decidedly “corporations bad” take the movie has that’s not all that surprising.
There was though a decent amount of advertising done. As the official site showed, there were at least three TV spots in rotation and I think I’ve seen a handful of online ads around and about as well. It’s not hard to sell Damon, especially with that ridiculous mustache enhancing the even more ridiculous look on his face. I also found on Flickr a couple examples of some outdoor advertising that was done, this one in New York City, using large-scale recreations of the second poster’s artwork.
Media and Publicity
It sounds ridiculous, but a lot of the film’s press coverage has focused on Damon’s gaining of 30 pounds in order to play the role of a doughy middle management type. Apparently we’re still entranced by the idea that a movie star can put on weight all these years after The Untouchables.
In addition to that there was a bit of general coverage, but far less than you’d expect from a movie starring Damon and directed by Soderbergh. Maybe the lack of such stories is that this doesn’t fall into one of Soderbergh’s two or three major categories of films: 1) Arty and experimental, 2) Big but personal and 3) Excuse to fart around with his friends. It’s not small enough to compare to The Girlfriend Experience, it’s not epic enough to compare to Che and it’s not big enough to compare to Oceans, despite the inclusion of that last series on much of the campaign’s material.
There was also some coverage of the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, where there was a Q&A with Soderbergh and Damon, a premiere that was largely well received and provided a good kick-off to the reviews around the movie. It later also appeared at the Toronto International Film Festival just a week or so before it bowed in theaters.
Overall
This is a movie that’s going to fly right by a lot of people and I think that’s a shame since it looks like it could be a lot of fun. Damon is obviously enjoying the light, slightly satiric tone and fans of Soderbergh are sure to come out for it, even if it does continue the director’s path of constantly reinventing himself and his cinematic style. (Seriously, name me a name-brand director who stubbornly refuses to pigeon-hole himself. He’s kind of my idol.)
But the campaign works on the level it’s playing at, which is saying something. It might be a little broader than the movie itself, at least based on some early reviews that I’ve read, but that’s to be expected to some extent. Whatever the case it presents a strong argument for checking the film out if you’re a fan movies about corporate greed, movies directed by Soderbergh, movies that don’t take themselves or the characters all that seriously or movies featuring ridiculous mustaches. Cause who doesn’t enjoy a good ridiculous mustache?
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