‘Ghost In The Shell’s Viral Campaign Has Already Backfired A Bit

Ghost In The Shell opens March 31st and is continuing its marketing blitz — from which we’ve already seen the first trailer, a Superbowl spot, the second trailer, a clip, and a featurette — with a new promo (above) and a viral marketing campaign (below) which has summarily backfired.

The viral marketing campaign kicked off with this video set to FKA Twigs’ “Figure 8”:

In the promo, Scarlett Johansson informs us “I am hunted. I am the hunter. I am Major.” The video then points viewers to IAmMajor.me, where they can upload a photo and a caption to answer the question, “Who are you?” Considering the film has been under fire for casting Johansson as a white, Americanized version of the Major, you might believe what happened next.

As is the case whenever a company lets the public input their own captions, things predictably went pear-shaped, with VzA starting things off:

Whoopsidoodle.

From there, other folks on Twitter replied with jokes about other instances of white actors playing Asian characters, like this reference to how Iron Fist actor Finn Jones briefly quit Twitter (they always come back) after scathing criticisms.

(Via Paramount Pictures, Screen Crush, ValerieComplex, helpmeskeletor, Maria_Giesela, Nice_White_Lady, DLohRidah, IWriteAllDay_, gleebix, and ZweiXross)