That Awkward Moment — otherwise known as “the rom com for dudes” — was given a completely different marketing strategy for its Australian release. Whereas the American release was marketed towards young males, the Australian release was spun as a rom com for the ladies. Or basically, “a rom com.” One redditor got their hands on the movie poster for the Australian film, which kept the original title of Are We Officially Dating?, and did an interesting side to side comparison of the two posters for the same film:
As you can see, the American poster on the left features three dumb dudes dumbing it up in a hilariously dumb dude way, whereas the Australian poster on the right looks like a f*cking Nicholas Sparks movie. The reason for this is more than likely that while That Awkward Moment came out in late January in the United States; Are We Officially Dating? was released in Australia the day before Valentine’s Day.
I’d go on about the evils of the marketing industry, and how many an Australian Valentine’s date was probably ruined by the bait and switch, but come on. Either way, we know that this was not a good movie. You can try all you want to polish a giant, Zac Efron-shaped turd, and while you might have yourself a very fashionable turd with nice hair — it’s not going to stink any less.