Stephen Alex Vasquez Weblog

Literally weeks before the wide release of “Zack and Miri Make a Porno”, several ads for the film, featuring stick figures, was intentionally created due to the criticism for the original poster from the MPAA, they said the original poster was highly sexually suggestive. So, the Weinstein’s came up with the stick figure concept. The ads are now being pulled from bus stops in certain areas due to the nature of the title. The word “porno” I guess seems to be suggestive and might trigger pre-pubescent kids to want to create porno’s or god forbid watch them. This might offset an unraveling chain of events where kids might “accidentally be prompted to investigate what the word “porno” means. I guess, I can sort of understand where these officials and parents are coming from, the stick figures can lure kids to the poster, thus prompting them to ask mom and pop what “porno” means, that is if they aren’t already exposed to the subject. Did the Weinstein’s really believe this would fly with conservative middle America? They’re shooting themselves in the foot, again. This could ultimately cost them box office draw power.  This wouldn’t be the 1st time K-dogg is faced with adversity, compared to the controversy surrounding Dogma, this is a walk in the park.

I have a few title suggestions for a revamp of the poster…

“Zack and Miri make an adult film”
” Zack and Miri make a dirty movie”
“Zack and Miri do something we can’t liberally express on this poster”
“Zack and Miri do something so inexplicably provocative that we can’t even write it on this ad”

Anyone else have any suggestions?

The city of Philadelphia refused “Zack and Miri” posters at bus stops. Similar posters at Boston bus stops have drawn complaints from a child-development expert who said they are inappropriate for children.

Smith found it ironic that the posters have been a problem. Some playfully risque ads with images of “Zack and Miri” stars Seth Rogen and Elizabeth Banks were forbidden by the Motion Picture Association of America, which called the ads “highly sexually suggestive and not suitable for general audiences.”

So Weinstein came up with posters using stick figures to represent the actors.

“The whole idea was, our hands were so tied on all previous entries we’d given them that this ad was meant to be the innocuous one that would get approved everywhere,” Smith said.

Rina Cutler, Philadelphia deputy mayor for transportation, said the stick-figure posters were cute and clever but unacceptable for bus shelters where schoolchildren would see the word “porno.”

“If they want to call the movie `Zack and Miri,’ that’s fine, but Zack and Miri cannot make a porno on my bus shelters,” Cutler said.

I honestly just dont understand how people can be so freakin closed minded about this stuff. I doubt that children will start walking up to it asking what the movie is just because it has stick figures. If this is all a problem maybe they should just shorten it to ‘Zack and Miri’?

I pulled this off We are Movie Geeks…
we are movie geeks