Absolute Disbelief
November 16, 2009by spacepug
Checked out another excellent article by Maureen Ryan over at the Chicago Tribune about the upcoming BSG prequel series, Caprica, and my jaw dropped open in shock.
If you thought going from SciFi to SyFy was a bad marketing move, get a load of the new poster for Caprica. Wow, not only have they produced a completely unoriginal image (echoes of Dollhouse, Terminator, how many others?), they’ve sexualized an underage girl and made a mockery of their own claim that the show will be serious drama. All with one poster. WTF were they thinking?
Honestly, now I’m worried. Not at all because they have cut the series order by one episode, but because the marketing department’s move is, in my opinion, a huge misstep. Caprica is going to be a tough sell, period. It’s a drama with just enough sci-fi to make mainstream viewers nervous, and probably not enough sci-fi to guarantee the dedicated geek following. Why shoot yourself in the foot so early? Perhaps they’ll come up with a better game plan before January 22nd.
Agree or disagree? Comment below.
The 13th Colony 
this has the potential to end up failing because of bad marketing the way that Defying Gravity failed. They’re trying to do both a mainstream drama and a sci fi series, doing so in a half-assed way, and it will end up pissing off the sci fi people and turn off mainstream viewers.
plus they don’t know how to market, so they’re retreating into the “sexy girl” thing because they’re not creative enough to sell it properly.
Good sci fi needs good branding and marketing, and NBC Universal has been on a downward spiral for a while (the SyFy channel sucks with all this reality show bullshit, and NBC has killed good shows for crap like Trauma which I have the misfortune of watching filemd outside my door)
I am sure they’ll find a way to kill the show early. They should have just done a better movie instead of a pilot that’s really not even BSG (the original story was for a tv series, and they just bolted on BSG stuff to make it a prequel).
I have mixed feelings. I mean, I get the symbolism (one that was actually used in “No Exit”), but the nudity seems kind of unnecessary. It also doesn’t seem to hit everything that the show is about. I’m still not sure what to think, but I have to admit that it’s relatively better than the horrible photoshop they did with the earlier version.
She’s actually 22, so she’s not underage at all…
I realize the actress is old enough, but the character of Zoe is still just a schoolgirl. That’s why I questioned it.
Have to expect the network marketing folk to put out cheap stuff like this. Underage? Well, Zoe maybe, but Alessandra Torresani is 22. No, it doesn’t reflect what the show is about but I don’t see that as being something you can fully portray in a poster anyway given the complexities of the story. But this doesn’t make me worried about the show itself, it’s not like it’s Jane Espenson’s call what’s on the poster.
I just hope it works in getting the masses to watch the show.
I wonder which audience or demographic they were targeting with the poster. Young males? It seems like much of the content of the pilot was drama between the parents. If they wanted to go sexy, why not picture Esai Morales and aim for the female 25-49 bracket? So much sci-fi uses sexy young women in it’s marketing, and I think that all sci-fi fans, male and female, want more from their TV than T&A.
All I can say is ….Twilight, much?
The likeness to Eve demands that she be naked. It’s provacative but I don’t think it’s inappropriate. I wish Alessandra Torresani and Caprica the best of luck!