Johnny English

The second trailer from Working Title is the incredibly well known Johnny English. Armed with Rowan Atkinson and millions of juvenile jokes 'Johnny English' hit off immediately. But looking back at the trailer several years on, I realised that I must of been insane to go to the cinema and watch this. The trailer not only has the cheesiest voice over ever, it also brings attention to the worst aspects of the film. The only part that I can see within the two minute trailer that sells the movie to me, is the fact that we get an image of Rowan Atkinson for almost every single second. I feel slightly conned of a childhood when I peer into the depths of Johnny English, and realise that it became so successful only because it targeted an audience of children and their kind parents. Now, I am not going to just insult a trailer because I have seen the full film, I also think that there are many good points. For one, the over use of Rowan Atkinson's face is a clever technique that means the audience can predict that if they liked other films staring him, they will also like this one. Another sales technique I noticed was the positioning of the cheesy voice over. At one point in the trailer we see Johnny English covered in excrement whilst the cheesy voice says, "From the producers of Mr. Bean". This is effective on the audience because Mr. Bean normally came hand in hand with looking filthy in supposedly funny situations. Throughout the trailer the over use of well known actors and bad jokes gives the audience the slight giddy feeling where they are so stunned by the trailers random sequence of events that they suddenly find themselves in the cinema watching the full film in 3D with premiere seats and large popcorn. To conclude, The trailer for Johnny English contrasts well with Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, because they both target different audiences and use sales techniques that were more common when the film was made.