Snakes on a Plane Meme Campaign

2005

Date: August 2005 onward · film released 18 August 2006 · Place: blogs · livejournal · the film's pre-release publicity vacuum · Figures: Samuel L. Jackson, lead · New Line Cinema, producers · Brian Finkelstein, blogger (Snakes on a Blog) · Tags: Marketing, Pre-Release 01. A Title No Marketing Department Can Improve In August 2005 screenwriter Josh Friedman blogs that he has been hired to do uncredited work on a film called Snakes on a Plane and that Samuel L. Jackson reportedly threatened to quit when the studio tried to retitle it. The title goes viral within the blogosphere within days. Bloggers, especially law student Brian Finkelstein at Snakes on a Blog, treat the unfinished film as a meme object for a full year. Fans submit fake posters, songs, T-shirts, trailer parodies, alternate openings. New Line Cinema reshoots in March 2006 to add fan-requested R-rated material including the canonical Samuel L. Jackson line. 02. The First Crowdsourced Studio Movie The film opens 18 August 2006 to underwhelming box office ($62 million worldwide on a $33 million budget). The cultural footprint is significantly larger than the financial one. The line GET THESE MOTHERFUCKING SNAKES OFF THIS MOTHERFUCKING PLANE was workshopped into the film by the audience before the audience ever bought tickets. Snakes on a Plane is the first studio film whose marketing collapses into its meme. Every subsequent fan-led pre-release campaign (Sharknado, Cocaine Bear) descends from it. The marketing lesson studios actually learn (a meme is not a ticket sale) survives the box office. Sources • Josh Friedman, 'Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane' blog post (August 2005) • New York Times, 'Snakes on a Plane: a one-of-a-kind marketing test' (2006) • KnowYourMeme, Snakes on a Plane