Why a Single Poster for the Facebook Film Has Scribes Gushing

(MoneyWatch)  Want to know how obsessed we all are with Facebook? The mere publication of a poster advertising the movie The Social Network is making headlines. "You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies" is the tagline.

It's a giant tease and we're all falling for it. The poster was revealed on the film's website and that's pretty much the only "tangible" object the studio has released for the film. Yet the site has a faux "Recommend" button that's already been clicked by nearly 2,900 people at the time of writing.

Beyond a description of the movie on Wikipedia, there's virtually no other useful information about the movie to be had. Forbes was reduced to reciting the cast list from IMDB. (The movie won't be released until October.)

Still, reporters and bloggers need to say something -- anything! -- so people are hanging their hats on the tiniest of details. People love the Facebook style interface displayed on the side of the image (click to enlarge) and the scroll bar along the bottom.

Both AgencySpy and Entertainment Weekly agree the poster is reminiscent of American Psycho, although I can't see it myself. I think the Hollywood Reporter has it right: The poster is influenced by Vampire Weekend's album covers, particularly "Contra."

As a marketing strategy, it's brilliant: Give out as little information as possible, and let consumers and bloggers fill in the vacuum with their own chatter. Merrick from Ain't It Cool News said:

Personally, I really love this poster - it says so much, without going through a lot of trouble to do so.

Actually, it's doing the opposite. By saying so little, the rest of us are saying so much.

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