Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Johnny Depp's December blockbuster, was met with great success across the board. Although many viewers were pleasantly surprised at the mix of horror, dark comedy, and musical interludes, others still were very upset and accused a United Kingdom advertising firm of false advertising. According to an article posted on contactmusic.com, angry moviegoers are asking the Advertising Standards Agency to "investigate the misleading advertisements." The frustrated film lovers claim that the U.K. trailer for Sweeney Todd blatantly portrayed it as a horror film and left out any signs that it was a full-fledged musical. "Richard Brunton, head of online film site Filmstalker, says, 'When the U.K. trailer came out there was nothing in it that pointed it out to be a musical. 'I would say the advertising has been blatantly misleading and I assume that the feeling was that less people would pay to see a musical so it would be better to sell it as a horror movie.'"
It is not a new notion to target a movie towards a certain demographic that would yield higher revenues and this practice has, as such, been criticized through and through by the public. Bottom line: its no secret that Sweeney Todd is a musical and "true" fans should have suspected a musical, even if advertising lead them to believe otherwise.
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