The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Doug Zanger, Americas Editor

March 3, 2016 | 3 min read

As someone who grew up in the (gulp) 70s and 80s, Ghostbusters has a special place in not only my heart, but those who gravitated more towards comedy and less towards Star Wars. The original was like a comedy blanket, lovingly draped over us, keeping us all warm and fuzzy. On mornings after a night of revelry rendered us slower than usual, Ghostbusters provided succor. If it randomly popped up on TBS some Sunday afternoon, we’d sit and watch it — commercials and all.

Scenes and lines can be recited from memory (“Where do these stairs go?” “They go up.”), thousands make the journey to New York City to take in Ghostbusters tours. It’s about as perfect as comedy can get (highly subjective, I know) — which is why watching the reaction to the official trailer for Paul Feig’s reboot, released today, is interesting.

At the time of this writing (around 2:10pm Pacific Time in the US), almost 1.2m people watched it — in one day.

Also, at the time of this writing, 31,880 people on YouTube “liked” the trailer and 48,255 “disliked” it.

There is nothing more polarizing than taking something so beloved and cherished — and giving it a new direction. (Yes, there was Ghostbusters II, but let’s pretend that it didn’t exist for a moment, shall we?) Honestly, I loved the idea of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones doing this film.

On day one of the trailer’s release, the overwhelming “huh?” feeling, however, is not a good sign.

Comments from YouTube underscore the point.

Then, there were a few jabs at Sony Pictures, who really aren't having a great past couple of years.

Finally, a swing back at some of the sexist comments that (sadly) peppered the comments.

So, what say you? Are you gonna watch Ghostbusters? The public may be on the fence, but the founders of the franchise certainly think it’s a winner. Time will tell which way the pendulum swings.

Ghostbusters

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