This is a promotional advertisement for a 2007 film entitled, Wristcutter: A Love Story, distributed by After Dark Films.
The film’s site, www.wristcutters.com, provides the following synopsis: “Zia (Patrick Fugit), distraught over breaking up with his girlfriend, decides to end it all. Unfortunately, he discovers there is no read ending, only a run-down afterlife that is strikingly similar to his old one, just a bit worse. Discovering that his ex-girlfriend has also “offed” herself, he sets out on a road trip, with his Russian rocker friend, to find her. Their journey takes them through an absurd purgatory where they discover that being dead doesn’t mean you have to stop livin’.” The film is rated R for language and disturbing content involving suicide, by the Motion Picture Association and opened nationwide on November 2, 2007.
The ad features traffic signs that show images of people committing suicide in various ways such as cutting of the wrist, hanging by a noose, jumping off a bridge, electrocution in a bathtub, drowning with a block around the foot, inhaling fumes from a car, a gun to the head, drinking a poisonous liquid, suffocating, and even includes an image of a person with an explosive device strapped to their chest.
When viewing the ad critically, I could not help but to think about how it may be perceived by children who may encounter the movie’s promotional material. Could this piece be introducing the idea of suicide for the first time? Or simply acting as a ‘reminder’ to someone depressed, seeking a solution to whatever they may be troubled by? Could the ad be offering suggestions of methods in which one may chose to commit suicide? Are these suggestions or the presentation of the topic of suicide appropriate for all members of the public, who unwillingly may be engaged by the movie’s poster?
Perhaps while standing at the bus stop, waiting for his morning transit, a father, who lost their child to suicide catches a glance at the advertisement, without warning invoking emotions tied to a tragedy. What might happen if a teenager, desperate for love and isolated by the harsh realities of the halls of her high school, sees the ad? After all, the movie is titled “A Love Story”. These hypothetical scenarios could be listed for days on end, making the controversy very real.
I think this ad makes light of a serious and tragic events such as depression laced with thoughts of suicide, attempts at ending one’s life, and death, by even something as little as making the blood from the wristcut shaped into a heart, and I feel those whom have experienced such calamity may agree. This is an ad offered to the public in hopes of getting moviegoers to buy tickets, but as I searched for messages of power, culture, and literacy, ticket sales were not on my mind. I thought this ad gave power to suicide as a solution. The images were not lifelike photos, yet plays on traffic signs, where the people lacked specificity of race, gender, ethnicity, age, or any other characteristics that individualized the human. They did, however, chose to distinguish the difference among the figures by a variety of choice methods to commit suicide.
In summary, I feel the ad’s targeted audience is those that find comedic value in the satire of such a film and marginalizes members of communities, cultures, or religions that do not condone suicide or accept the concept of suicide as satisfactory. I believe the ad privileges those whom have had the fortune of never being impacted by suicide in any way, shape, or form. The ad promoted a movie publicly, without heed to viewers sensitive to the subject matter.
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