Studio Hired Teens to Pitch ‘R’ Film to Peers

Hollywood’s expertise in driving kids into theaters to see violent R-rated films by pulling strings to create buzz among teens is vividly illustrated with MGM/UA’s promotion of the 1998 movie “Disturbing Behavior,” internal studio documents reveal.

In Southern California, it hired teenagers to pass out merchandise at underage hangouts. A summer program for hundreds of teens at New York City’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts was called a “perfect demo-hit.” The studio staked out popular teen skating spots, such as Manhattan’s Chelsea Piers. In Seattle, it hired a promoter, nicknamed “Super Dave” because he “specializes in the underage dance club scene.”

The campaign was for a film that earned an R rating from the Motion Picture Assn. of America for sexuality, drugs and strong violence, including scenes showing the killing of a policeman, a violent supermarket rampage, a woman smashing her head into a mirror and a high school jock who snaps a girl’s neck, killing her.

The documents show that MGM/UA marketeers went to great lengths to orchestrate a word-of-mouth campaign to make sure underage teens were aware of the movie. The previously undisclosed documents, obtained Friday by The Times, provide the most detailed and damaging accounts yet in the federal investigation into how Hollywood markets violent movies to teens.

“In promoting ‘Disturbing Behavior,’ our goal was to find the elusive teen target audience and make sure everyone between the ages of 12-18 was exposed to the film,” wrote MGM publicist Lamya Souryal in a lengthy memo describing the efforts.

Souryal went on to explain how teenagers were organized into special teams and paid to distribute “Disturbing Behavior” bracelets, bumper stickers and posters at Los Angeles and Orange County hangouts, such as Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, Westwood, Old Town Pasadena and the Lab in Costa Mesa.

Also targeted were “all-age nightclubs, which attract huge teen crowds,” a “trendy Philadelphia teen hangout,” “teen hangout areas” in Atlanta and “a juice/dance bar catering to underage kids.” So were “teen-specific retail outlets, promotional partners and community organizations” that included cheerleading camps, sports leagues, band and drill team camps and even driver’s education classes.

Earlier this week, a contrite group of Hollywood executives at a Senate Commerce Committee hearing agreed that they should not target teenagers younger than 17 when marketing R-rated films. The hearing came in the wake of a scathing Federal Trade Commission report earlier this month that concluded studios systematically did just that.

The MGM memo, contained in FTC records, shows in explicit detail how Hollywood has refined the art of selling violent, R-rated films to youths as young as 12. Other FTC documents show that MGM did not have a corner on those techniques.

One FTC document for “The Mimic,” a 1997 film from Walt Disney’s Miramax unit rated R for terror, violence and language, describes plans to distribute fliers and posters for the film to dozens of youth organizations, including Camp Fire Boys & Girls and Girl Scouts.

A Paramount Pictures memo on “media strategies” for its John Travolta film “The General’s Daughter,” rated R for violence and rape, describes the studio’s plans for buying TV commercials targeted at “the 12-24 (skewing male)” audience and recommends spot radio ads likely to produce a “good delivery of teens.”

On Friday, MGM Vice Chairman Chris McGurk reiterated a pledge he made to the Senate hearing earlier in the week that company managers who took over the studio last year have put into place new procedures aimed at eliminating any similar problems.

“ ‘Disturbing Behavior’ was something that occurred two years ago and doesn’t reflect our current marketing practices,” McGurk said. “Even before the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, that’s a movie this current management team would never have greenlit. Clearly there were problems in our marketing.”

Disney spokesman John Dreyer called the Miramax marketing moves “regrettable lapses in judgment.” He added that Miramax, a division known for edgier, controversial films, has agreed to tighter marketing policies aimed at preventing such abuses that Disney unveiled in the wake of the FTC report.

Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman Rob Friedman said that “The General’s Daughter” wasn’t targeted to teens under age 17 and that less than 3% of the audience was in that age group. He added that the inclusion of teens in the Paramount memo stems from the way advertising agencies buy blocks of time that often encompass a wide range of age groups.

Asked about the “Disturbing Behavior” marketing plan, Rich Taylor, spokesman for the MPAA, said: “If you look at the records of any industry and corporation, you’re going to find an indication of poor judgment written by someone who demonstrated poor judgment.”

Taylor also reiterated pledges by Hollywood’s studios to do better.

“There are things we are not going to defend,” Taylor said. “The key thing is to move forward and to do what we can do to prevent egregious mistakes . . . in the future.”

One thing the documents also show is a symbiotic relationship between studios and radio stations in promoting R-rated films to teens. For Miramax’s “The Faculty,” listeners to radio station contests won free tickets to see the film for their best “why you stayed home from school today” excuse.

When “Disturbing Behavior” was promoted in Hawaii, one radio station gave away movie passes and promotional items to teenagers at beaches and malls. “Kids had to describe what they thought their parents would say is the teens’ most disturbing behavior,” according to the MGM memo. Still another radio station passed out promotional materials for “Disturbing Behavior” during “A Family Festival” in Griffith Park that drew more than 1,000 people.

In recent years, the making and marketing of films to teens has become a Hollywood obsession, with teen horror films among the most popular in the wake of such successes as the “Scream” franchise and films such as “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” The films feature young stars, often from popular TV shows, and usually include good doses of sex and violence.

“Disturbing Behavior” was to be such a film. Starring Katie Holmes, one of the stars of the popular teen drama “Dawson’s Creek” on the WB network, the movie was about outcasts who encounter a high school full of clean-cut students who turn out to be zombie-like because of electronic brain implants. Just before the film was released, Larry Gleason of MGM described it to The Times as a “Stepford Wives” for teens.

National Research Group Inc., Hollywood’s top research company, tested two television commercials for “Disturbing Behavior” by surveying “a general cross-section of 438 moviegoers 12 to 20 years old.”

The internal memo and other reports, copies of which were sent to the company’s top executives at the time, list numerous ways that teens were aggressively targeted. Radio promotions were targeted during the strongest teen listening hours, and the studio worked with stations to host “Disturbing Behavior” nights at “all-age nightclubs which attract huge teen crowds.”

“Super Dave,” the Seattle promoter, “has tied us into several area underage nightclubs and community sponsored dances for high-school-age teens,” documents read. Promotional materials also were distributed at a three-day Seattle festival attracting 500,000 people, of which “most are teens.”

Ironically, for all of MGM’s efforts, “Disturbing Behavior” was no “Scream.” Not only was the movie skewered by critics--Leonard Maltin called it “teen-targeted dreck”--it also was a box-office dud, grossing only $17 million domestically.

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THE IGER SANCTION

Disney President Robert Iger presses for a universal entertainment rating system. F1

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Plans for ‘Teen Teams’

A memo from one MGM publicist, right, describes studio efforts to send out “Teen Street Teams” to help lure children as young as 12 to “Disturbing Behavior,” an R-rated movie.

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An excerpt from the memo:

In promoting DISTURBING BEHAVIOR, our goal was to find the elusive teen target audience and make sure everyone between the ages of 12-18 was exposed to the film. To do so, we went beyond the media partners by enlisting young, hip “Teen Street Teams” to distribute items at strategic teen “hangouts” such as malls, teen clothing stores, sporting events, driver’s ed classes, arcades and numerous other locations.

Source: Times research