Marketing Travesty

There's a Woolworth's just near my house, and as well as having cheap kitchen-y stuff, they also have a smallish DVD section, which often has super-fantastic deals.

Every once in a while, I go to persue their selection and have come away with many a bargain. The other week, I was taking a peek, and what did I stumble across?

Let's just take a moment to laugh at the fact that it was only £1.

Anyway, huh, I thought to myself. Did Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt make a movie together recently? Because that's a recent photo on the cover, yes?

And then I noticed the title.

Oh, that's right. It's Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

The NINETEEN EIGHTY FIVE film Girls Just Want To Have Fun. The film that was made 22 years ago, when Sarah Jessica Parker was 20 and Helen Hunt was 22. The film in which they play teenagers.

And don't even get me started on the layout - if you're going to have the tagline "Life will be serious soon enough, but for now...", then it really should be ABOVE the title so it makes sense!

But back to the blatantly misleading photo.

Perhaps they've just used this on the front, and the back will clear everything up.

Well, in the sense that they've used actual photos from the movie, yes. In the sense that by far the largest photo is of Sarah Jessica Parker circa the Sex & The City years, no.

For the record, this is what the cover should look like:

That's right. They're YOUNG! And it also stars Shannen Doherty. The 2007 cheater cover shows no Shannen Doherty love. (Also, please gloss over the fact that I now own two copies of this movie.) (Please gloss over the fact that I'd actually already replaced the VHS copy in that photo with a DVD, and I actually now own three copies of this movie.)

I can only imagine the disgust that someone would feel if they bought this movie based solely on the (obviously photoshopped, once you really look at it) image on the cover.

They'd expect a rom-com about thirty-something gals in the city. And what would they get?

A teen dance movie that features an awkward teenaged Sarah Jessica Parker competing in a dance competition on a show called "Dance TV" with her dreamy partner Jeff. Her wacky friend Helen Hunt, Jeff's best friend Jonathan Silverman and his sister Shannen Doherty help the crazy kids win the dance competion - and each other's hearts. And it contains the line "Eat flame, Bozo!"

For shame, DVD marketing people. For shame, I say!