What an interesting world we live in that we see a film’s marketing blatantly turn on critics in such a volatile way. Do you know about the John Travolta film Gotti? No? You’d be forgiven for not knowing about it. Hell, I write about this stuff almost daily, and while I remember writing something up months back when Travolta was first cast (or at least some aspect of its production or development), I can’t say I remembered its existence until I caught sight of this ad.

Gotti is the biopic for gangster John Gotti, who was the head of the Gambino crime family. The movie hit theaters last week on June 15, and had the distinction of rating at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that all 25 of the critics who rated the film disliked it. Even the review aggregate site’s consensus was a bit cheeky, made up of only one word: “Fuhgeddaboudit.”

The Gotti marketing team didn’t take this sitting down, and what we got was a 16-second ad that said, “Audiences loved Gotti. Critics put out the hit. Who would you trust more? Yourself or a troll behind a keyboard?”

Audiences loved Gotti but critics don’t want you to see it… The question is why??? Trust the people and see it for yourself! pic.twitter.com/K6a9jAO4UH

— Gotti Film (@Gotti_Film) June 19, 2018

Ouch! Shots fired, Gotti! That being said, I have to say the biggest concern this film had was not critics hating it as much as it was the film fizzling out with almost zero fanfare. To the marketing team’s credit, this move has given them an extra bit of spotlight, and could very well result in more audiences being intrigued by the jab at critics.

What do you think of this tactic by the studio? Was it a good move? Let us know your thoughts down below!

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SOURCE: Gotti