IIRC in the past 5 years or so the character E.T. of the movie “E.T. The Extra -Terresterial” has been used for all manner of advertising tie-ins from fast food toys to the current Toyota ad. E.T. was released in 1982 and while a good film for the time is hardly at the top of anyone’s list of relevant cultural icons.
What is the power this film holds over advertisers that they are willing to pay big bucks for a product tie in with a 20 year old sci-fi film that few people consider to be a signficant cultural touchstone?
Nostalgia is a big money maker. The kids who grew up with E.T. are now parents with kids themselves. It’s the same with all the other 80s memorabilia that’s starting to come out.
Which is funny because I don’t think the re-release did that well (it made money, but I don’t think it did nearly as well as they all thought it would) and the actual ET toys are crowding up shelves everywhere.
For such a huge box office success ET aged horribly. I rented it when it was first made available on video years after its theatrical release. Given that I loved the movie as a child I was surprised at how much I didn’t like the video. When it was re-released in theaters recently none of the kids I knew were the least bit interested in seeing it. I know I wasn’t interested in it.
The only times I can recall E.T. appearing in ads before the 20th Anniversary re-release was when the movie was rereleased on video and a Super Bowl ad for Progressive Auto Insurance.
I hatedET as a kid. Still do, in fact. I was born the year it came out, so I was just old enough to remember when it started playing all the timeat parties (at homes which had VCRs by then) as a “safe way to entertain the kiddies.” :rolleyes: Once or twice would have been enough for me, but it was so very overplayed. It seems like every Thanksgiving and Christmas for years it was either being shown television or was in the VCR. And I was the kid who probably watched the animated Return of the King probably 500 times. So there must be something about that movie that I just don’t like. Maybe it’s just too sappy for me.
I know what you mean, asterion- I hate it too. In fact, it’s my most hated movie of all time. That bad.
It’s so overly sentimental. Maybe i’m just horribly cynical, but movies like that, that just try so hard to make you feel sad or happy or whatever just leave me cold. You can just see Spielberg’s manipulative actions behind it all. And E.T…ugh, horrid beast.