CoverGirl's new Hunger Games tie-in marketing campaign is one of the more creative and well-executed you'll ever see. "It is also one of the most disturbing," writes Andrew Slack in the LA Times. The line is called the "Capitol Collection," a reference to the Capitol of Panem—the place where vain, privileged people eagerly tune in to watch children from starving regions fight to the death. Effectively, CoverGirl and Lionsgate are "turning an anti-classist epic into a platform for the novels' villains."
The Hunger Games books are essentially about economic inequality, which means they speak all too well to modern America, where 22% of children live in poverty. Lionsgate has anti-poverty partners, and if its marketing "was even a fraction as creative in pushing those group's messages as it has been in crafting its orgy of conspicuous consumption, it might be achieving something true to the films' themes." Instead, Slack's activist group, the Harry Potter Alliance, is trying to hijack Lionsgate's campaign. Whenever they see ads for Lionsgate's promotional partners, they snap a picture of themselves giving them the three-fingered salute—the Districts' symbol for defiance of the Capitol. Click for Slack's full column. (More Hunger Games stories.)
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