The genius secrets behind the marketing of JAWS

Hello, Islanders!

JAWS has created its on list of firsts:

FIRST – Summer Blockbuster

FIRST – Film to pass the $100 million mark

FIRST – Movie I think of when someone asks, “want to watch a movie?”

But another first, not really discussed, is the unique advertising campaign the film undertook, a campaign which is still used today to great success.  

I have a collection of over (300) 16 mm film reels that consist of short television spots/trailers for various films from the 1970s.  I used to bother the station manager of our local television station who, after a film had played in the city, would normally throw them out.  Depending on the film, there may be only one 30-second spot while, on others, there may be a reel with ten different spots at various lengths of time, from 10-second to one minute.  Before JAWS, these didn’t exist.  

In my youth, the only way you learned of a film coming out was through word of mouth.  Maybe a popular novel – say “The Godfather” – would have a blurb on the cover that read “soon to be a major motion picture!”  The only way I can remember learning about an upcoming film on television was during the final minutes of the Sunday movie of the week when, if there was time remaining, the network would run a short “making of” featurette to spark interest.  But Universal knew they had something special, so they did their best to make it so.

Thanks to Roger Kastel, the iconic artwork from the paperback edition of the novel was eye catching, even to the most casual observer.  The large shark, mouth open, heading up to meet the swimming woman, was, to quote Jackie Gleason in Smokey and the Bandit, “an attention getter.”  

 The film opened on Friday, June 20, 1975.  Spending an amazing $700 thousand dollars, the studio ran multiple 30-second spots for the film on prime-time television for the three days prior to opening day.  In another first, Universal had the local theatre owners pay a portion of the advertising buy, assuring them their money would be recouped.    They also mounted a radio advertising campaign featuring the amazing combination of Percy Rodrigues’ voice and John Williams’ music.  The ominous “See it…before you go swimming” followed by “bum bum bum” was, to quote Chief Brody, like “ringing the dinner bell.”

Theatre owners clamored for JAWS and the studio’s bookers planned to release it on over 600 screens.  However, MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman, knowing what he had, only released it to 465 screens, hoping this lack of availability would create “lines around the block” for weeks.  He was right, with the film earning back it’s estimated $7 million budget in its first week.

Next time you’re watching the Super Bowl and a commercial comes on for a film that isn’t opening for months, you can thank JAWS.

Words by Michael A Smith. Michael is co-author of Jaws 2: The Making Of The Hollywood Sequel. You can order the book by contacting Michael at OsFanMike@aol.com.

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