Marketing Campaign For Supernatural Thriller - The Shining

Poster Analysis

• The film title has been placed at the bottom of the poster because this logically is the last thing the audience will read, however it has also been put as the boldest, biggest and clearest of all the text so that it is obvious that this is the title.


• The main image is of the male character breaking through the door supposedly (from the look on the woman's face) to harm the woman. This is notably the most famous scene within the film. This image unusually makes it obvious before the audience have even seen the film who's the villain and who's the victim. This image makes the audience question why i she attacking her? Will he succeed?


• The main box office draw 'Jack Nicholson' has been mentioned below the title in the billing block. The Writer has also been mentioned as he is well known for writing really good thrillers 'Stephen King'. These box office draws will be big bonuses when advertising because people assume that films with big names will be good.


• The director and producer have also been named in the same way as the box office draws, below the title in the billing block.


• The poster doesn't really have a tagline, it only has a quote 'The tide of terror that swept America is here' this has been placed at the top of the poster so that it is the first thing the audience will read, and instantly promote the film as it doesn't give any of the film away it only says that America loved it.


• The release date hasn't been advertised on the poster, this means that it is probably, on the trailer for people to see.

Magazine Cover Analysis

• This issue of Empire was to promote the thriller film 'The Shining' not as a new release but as one of the best 500 films of all time.


• This magazine issue has been aimed at all the late teen upwards film lovers. It is a special issue of the normal issues of Empire. This is shown in the colours used on the cover.


• On this special issue of Empire there aren't many cover lines about the contents, this is mainly becasue the whole issue is based aroud the one content of '500 greatest movies of all time' which has been made part of the masthead.


• The main image takes up about 95% of the cover, this is the famous image from the film 'The Shining' this is very good advertisement and promotion fo the film itself, as well as informing the audience of what the magazine contains.


• Bright colours have been used on the masthead and main cover line to make it really stand out in the sales rack. The masthead (title) is in the well known font of Empire magazine.


• The title of the magazine Empire doesn't explain the contents of the magazine, however becasue of how well known the magazine is people know the contents as soon as they hear the name.


• This cover has an unconventional pug, the price is down in the right hand corner with the bar code. Conventionally this would be placed in the top left or right hand corner to catch the audiences eye.


• This issue doesn't have much chance to use persuasive language to attract the audience but it still squeezes some in. An example of this is using the word 'Greatest', this is a positive word describing the cover line feature and therefore making the issue some attractive to the audience.