Hipster Crowd Targeted with Star Trek Photobooths and Star Trek Dance Parties March 27, 2009
by Anthony Pascale , Filed under: Marketing/Promotion, Star Trek (2009 film) , trackback
This week Paramount added a couple new facets to their marketing mix, Star Trek Photobooths and Star Trek Dance Parties. You can get your photo taken and it shows up in special new mosaics on the official site for the new Star Trek movie. These booths are starting to show up at special Star Trek events and dance clubs, complete with Orion girls, and more Trek fun.
Get your photo into the official site mosaic
This week Paramount launched a new feature for startrekmovie.com. There are a number of photo mosaics on the site now. These mosaics are made up of photos taken in official Star Trek photobooths which are just starting to show up.
One of four photo mosaics at the official site
After you take your photo in a booth, you can find it at the startrekmovie.com/mosaics. There are a total of four (Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Nero). When you click on a photo you can see the whole strip of four photos and zoom. You can share it on your favorite social networking site. There is a booth set up now on the Paramount lot and more booths will be showing up at other events.
Find your photos at the mosaic section of startrekmovie.com
Star Trek Dance Parties
The first Star Trek photo booth one was set up at the Hollywood dance club LAX last weekend, for the first ‘Star Trek Dance Party.’ (TrekMovie alerted Twitter followers about it the day of the event…another reason to follow us on Twitter)
LA hipsters inside and outside the Star Trek photobooth
Also on hand were some green Orion girls to give out posters and T-Shirts…and from the pictures below (from thecobrasnake.com), it looks like a good time was had by all.
Posters and t-shirts at LA Star Trek Dance party
Paramount is also showing off more of those new Enterprise models (as interpreted by various artists). Here is one that was showing at the LA event.
Artist Enterprises showing up at Star Trek Dance Parties
New York Dance Party tonight!
If you live in New York, there will be a booth at the WebsterHall dance club which is hosting at ‘Star Trek Dance Party’.
More dance parties and photo booth appearances will be announced soon. TrekMovie will provide an update when info is available. We are also working on getting our hands on those new posters and T-shirts.
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Comments»
Mmm. I wish I could have green dancing ladies.
Star Trek is trying to become mainstream again, i see.
FIRST! and I wish i was in the states! I hope the UK premiere will have green girls!
Star Trek along with Social Mainstream Dance Parties and the Hipster Crowd?
Socially accepted Star Trek? Really? Does that mean I’m cool now? :D
Just what we need…. hipsters.
what the?! How come no one heard about the LAX party? I would’ve went for the green girls!
Using sex to sell anything disgusts me.
I wish i was there
I’m so sick of Orion women…
Uh-whaaaa? If Trek becomes a fad, I don’t know what I’ll do. I don’t know how to be popular!
lmao what the frak!!!
#7 And that’s why the Borg lost.
I’ll try to get down to Webster Hall tonight (after the Jonathan Coulton concert, naturally). Give y’all a full report if I’m able to get in the door!
Boy, am I glad I live in Wisconsin. No need to worry about a hipster party here.
#6 “How come no one heard about the LAX party?”
No one on sites like TrekMovie.com would ever be told in ADVANCE about such a party. They wanted “hipsters”. We’re the nerds. We weren’t invited.
This isn’t my dad’s Star Trek. :) Not sure what to think.
:)
Wow.. this is weird, but if it works…
Actually TrekMovie sent out a Twitter announcement about the LAX party on Sunday, i added a link to that in the article. Currently about 3200 follow us on twitter…so should you
Ha ha, awesome! I want to go to a ST Dance Party!!
I’m liking that rendition of the new E on those posters there. TAS did have some cool art at times, no matter what the animation was like. The shot of the E that was used in every episode is one of my favorites, and the new version looks very cool in that style. Man, I wonder if there’s any way to get one without attending a club o the other side of the friggin’ country.
this shit is hilarious.
I find this whole thing insulting, they’re trying to “cool” up Star Trek, which through mainstream eyes is really “uncool” and it seems really fake
I’m rarely negative. But this is lame.
#21 I agree. My only reservation is, let’s not get TOO carried away. I don’t want to end up with Trek movies and shows of the common two-dimensional quality that lack Trek’s optimism and relative intelligence. Star Trek: be fun but don’t lose your brain or substance!
Will there be Borg drones doing the Data?
I just noticed that the tops of the nacelles on the photo of the new Enterprise above seem to have the top and bottom “hubs” as detachable. In other words, it would be a quick retrofit to have the tops and bottoms of the nacelles pared down to resemble to TOS nacelles. Maybe this is shown at the end of the film a la Star Wars episode 3 when the death star is shown being assembled.
Don’t be dismayed by marketing!
It is not a party without Orion Slavegirls. That’s my new philosophy. I don’t get the shirt though. Am I a bad Trekkie? Who is Spock’s head facing?
What the? I e-mail today Paramount Germany to ask where our Dance Parties are… dammit!
Everything nerd is cool again. Or maybe for the first time. Again.
Trek needs to be made cool. I’m all for it. Great angle.
If I was there, I’d BE there.
this is the most bizarre promotion for Star Trek I’ve ever heard of.
try not to be so negative and elitist, get them throught the by any means and then convert them!!! … Or should that be assimilate them :)
Wow. Actual girls at a Star Trek thing. If this doesn’t t separate the men from the “fan-boyz”, nothing will. (Hint: they won’t be turned on by encyclopaedic knowledge of Klingon sub-species nor boring explanations about “Gene’s Vision” and how money and negative emotions no longer exist in the Federation.)
Sincerely,
C.S. Lewis
I swear, if I find Trek t-shirts in Hot Topic…
A Star Trek Dance Party! lol, thats nice^^
I made a recut of the Star Trek Trailers, you might want to check it out =)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJCGK0uw9p8
Designer Drugs? Is that a group?
Best promotion EVER!!
31: My thoughts exactly!
33: I regret to tell you that they actually exist. They’re based on classic Trek, though, and I haven’t been able to find them in-store at any of the local malls around here. I honestly considered buying one online, but decided it’s not worth it. (If their quality wasn’t so piss-poor compared to the prices they charge, maybe. One of them had a cool design.)
Anthony:
“Hipsters?”
I thought the “hipsters” were all on Social Security already!
Everyone going, make sure you yell “I am Not Herbert!” every few minutes.
I want to go to an ST Dance party!
Chill fellow nerds. These parties are only to serve a “trickle out” effect in order to heighten Star Trek’s profile.
I can guarantee that 99 percent of the people going couldn’t care less about Star Trek. They’re just there to dance and get laid.
“I love Star Wars! Nanu nanu! Beam me up Han Solo!” *does more coke in the bathroom*
BUT! People who read about a “hip and trendy” Star Trek themed dance parties in the big city, are going to reassess the coolness factor of Trek.
Star Trek has had a bad stigma. Trekkies are the constant butt of jokes, Star Trek for many is synonymous with “nerdy loser”, and a lot of people wouldn’t consider watching a Star Trek movie or TV show because they think that it’s for geeks only.
Of course now, geek is more chic than it’s ever been, and it looks like Star Trek’s marketing is exploiting Trek’s kitschy, nostalgic image.
As a trekkie hipster who lives in LA – wish I knew about the party!
Facebook takes up too much of my time, forget Twitter!
Wow – Those Orion girls make me wanna bang a vagina for some reason.
Weird.
21. Jay El Jay –
“I find this whole thing insulting, they’re trying to “cool” up Star Trek, which through mainstream eyes is really “uncool” and it seems really fake”
7. 8of12 –
“Using sex to sell anything disgusts me.”
5. Will –
“Just what we need…. hipsters.”
Oh lighten up. The future’s not supposed to be some exclusive members-only country club. Be grateful people are finally embracing what we have always known is cool.
42. Devon-
Wait until you’re of legal age, junior.
@43 – hear hear! =)
@43 That is the real way!
Welcome them in our great family!
…This really stinks of ‘girls can join the ‘boys club’ of sci fi as long as they’re stereotypically sexy and titillate men’. I mean, are there any men dressed scantily there to hand stuff out?
Which makes me headdesk. What the hell? I thought we’d moved past the idea objectifying women randomly to sell something. NOT a way to make a good impression while promoting something.
47. Si -
AMEN.
Tell me this is a joke… I just can’t take this seriously.
Wow…way to capture the crystal meth crowd, Paramount!
Star Trek dance party?!? SIGN ME UP!
hey I’m part of a popular monthly dance party based out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Anthony or anybody know how I can find out more info on this? We’re big Trek fans and love to know more….
44- That’s tellin’ him Izbot. :-)
Heck yeah. This is gonna be shit, and we all know it. What is it with Star Trek and women as sex icons? So far, the only characters able to truly rise above that stereotype are Uhura, B’Elanna, and Captain Janeway. Seven, Rand, and some of the far too feminine ones such as Chapel and Troi all fall into that slutish group. And don’t forget all those girls who so easily fell for the infamous “Kirk charm”. And I don’t even count DS9. Enterprise? Come on. We had a female Vulcan who burst into tears on occasion. Advertising in this way was not a great move on Paramount’s part. I hope Uhura stays true to her character in this new movie.
i like it
“Hippsters?” was this written by 50’s Dad? lol jk
how cool’s that?! star trek PLUS murs, designer drugs and friendly fires? this must be heaven!
47. Si –
“…This really stinks of ‘girls can join the ‘boys club’ of sci fi as long as they’re stereotypically sexy and titillate men’. I mean, are there any men dressed scantily there to hand stuff out?”
Um, you ever *watch* Star Trek? Uhura in a mini skirt, catsuits for Seven, Troi & T’Pol. Green O-frikkin-rion slave girls? Who you kiddin’, man?!
WOOHOO!!! Drunk Sluts!!! I’m there!!! =O
…ain’t no party like a Star Trek Dance party…
…wait a second… STD party? Hmmm… not too sure about this…
58. “Um, you ever *watch* Star Trek? Uhura in a mini skirt, catsuits for Seven, Troi & T’Pol. Green O-frikkin-rion slave girls? Who you kiddin’, man?!”
So we should never, ever try and move past the 60’s attitudes. OK then.
Because if they did it in the 60’s, then it’s fine. It’s not like progression is good or anything.
/sarcasm
Tell the blond the green paint looks better when it’s not wiped off the forehead.
@60
Seven, Troi and T’Pol are VERY 90’s and 21st Millenium… as those green Orion Slave Girls… so now what? Move past 2005?
60. Si -
Your sentiments are noble and I can appreciate that. But the truth (in Hollywood and thus in every living room & theatre in the country, etc) is that sex sells. TNG was arguably the least sexed-up of all the Trek shows but we still got Troi in a skintight bodysuit every week.
I ain’t saying it’s right or anything, just the nature of the beast and the machine. So this little marketting gimmick draws in a bunch of drunken frat boys, so what? If it makes those frat boys less likely to beat up some campus dorks I think that’s something, at least.
I volunteer for green body make-up application duty at the next one!!!
SCHWINGG!!!
@62
Yes, retard.
62. Selor
I should have mentioned, I’m mostly familiar with TOS- at least, to a much larger degree than TNG, ENT, VOY etc. I can’t speak so much for the other characters.
Well, moving past objectification is all I ask for. I don’t really care what era you’d like to associate that with. I just want it to *happen*.
65. 8of12 –
Unneccessary. Does your mom know where you are?
I am disgusted and somehow … excited!
Green Orion Women? YES! My kinda party.
Heck, any girl that can do the Vulcan Hand Salute scores geek points with me.
67. Izbot –
No but yours does.
Is that what they’re callin’ it these days?
8of12
warning for flaming
63. Izbot
Yes, ’sex sells’. But the idea that we should buckle up and live with that idea is part of why it sells. If people refuse to accept it, perhaps it can be phased out. I agree that complaining here is hardly going to stop it, but I really think that simply sighing and saying oh well perpetuates the fact that people just accept horrible stuff like this as normal. Change requires, above all else, acknowledgement of there being a problem at all.
And it’s like… I’m not entirely opposed to ANY sex being involved in Trek. I mean, there are sexy people out there. Women with attitudes towards sex, women comfortable wearing revealing clothing, men who go out chatting people up all the time and are OK with that, whatever. Nothing wrong in portraying that in some characters. But this… this is not that. It’s simply ridiculous, and has nothing to do with that at all.
#47
I agree… but sadly, when men are used for such things, the entire event (not to mention the scantily dressed guy) is labeled as “gay”.
I don’t understand and certainy do not approve, but it’s true.
And #40, so well said!
“hey, look! Dr Spock!”
I’d buy THAT for a dollar! heh heh heh!!
Is this a typical promotion for a summer blockbuster? I was expecting an ARG or something.
My guess is that those sweet, innocent females painted green had no idea why they were green at all. Proof of that is a blonde Orian???
Well, she was paid for her looks, not her level of Star Trek knowledge.
Honestly, I would not be caught dead at some LA hipster dance party where most of not all of those people could care less about ST lore and what it stands for. They are nothing but a bunch of phoney, want-to-be-cool because I have a cocktail in my hand, celebutants, male models out in their their rented Mercedes (or BMW). These are the real people who love and care about Star Trek. I found more true fans every time I went to ST: The Experience in Las Vegas because they knew what it is all about.
Star Trek Dance Party sounds gay.
I know plenty of hipsters, and trust me, they are ALL nerds. They just hide it better than some of the typical nerds do.
I am in no way offended that people would want to hang out and have a few drinks at a bar with half naked attractive green women.
Exploitation, shm-exploitation.
Here’s the deal, folks: Anything that builds buzz for the movie is, by definition, good. Good, good, good.
I couldn’t care less if, at one of these movies, they have Mike Myers as Austin Powers show up and tell us how “Groovy, bay-bee” Star Trek is. If it gets publicity, I’m all for it.
What they’re looking for is money for the movie. Why? Because you just can’t make another movie without it.
PR is PR. Ain’t nothing wrong with that.
Reading some of the prudery up there, you’d never believe that original Trek WAS about sex a lot more than people believed. Why else did they have scantily (for the time period) dressed aliens in these stories? Case in point: Angelique Pettyjohn’s character. They could have picked a Rhodes scholar for the role, but they didn’t.
Not that Pettyjohn was dumb, of course, or that scholars are dowdy.
But you get my drift.
Die Hipster Scum
You’d really be surprised how many people ARE nerds. Nerdism is hardly anything new, it’s just never been as mainstream as it is now. I can talk about Transformers, Iron Man, and Batman with pretty much anyone and not fear a beating! And now (provided the new movie’s good) so will Trek enter the realm of “cool geek junk.”
I want one of them posters. Is there a better pic anywhere or even an online sales place thingy shoppy?
Wow, some prudish attitudes about Trek here.. Trek has always had sex in it and I can’t believe so many fans here think that is somehow a bad thing.
That’s some pretty cool, non-traditional (in a Star Trek sense) and innovative ideas of promoting the movie. I can’t stand ‘hipsters”. To me those kind of people are the real losers. Look at me, look at me!! Aren’t my clothes, hair, or whatever else just the coolest? He he he he! if you don’t have this or that product in your hair you must be from:______.
They all act like my teenagers. They’re not hipsters they’re posers.
Whew…I’m better now. Did I say I can’t stand them?
76. Lt. Bailey –
“Honestly, I would not be caught dead at some LA hipster dance party where most of not all of those people could care less about ST lore and what it stands for.”
82. Chuck Fu –
“Die Hipster Scum”
This type of blowback from Trek fans baffles me! Like Hat Rick says in #80 this is a good thing for us. Philosophically Trek has been centered around IDIC — Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination. “I rejoice in our differences,” as Spock expressed it. “Die Hipster Scum”? What happened to you, dude? That’s pretty adversarial. Seems like a few people here have some personal predjudices they need to get over. Trek becoming even more mainstream, more accepted, more visible is a GOOD thing, folks!
Just because hipsters and dance people appear superficial or shallow is no reason to believe in that stereotype — any more than I should assume all Trekfans are overweight, socially maladjusted losers living in their mothers’ basements.
I think its funny how they’re promoting Uhura so much for this movie. Last time I checked the trio was Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. Are they just swapping her for McCoy to be PC or something? Or are they just trying to make Star Trek sexy?
dear lord, some people here are idiots.
Marketing is not more important than not treating girls/women like sex objects. random vapid women who probably care little about star trek and are simply being paid for this is not good marketing. Not wanting women to be treated like objects is not being ‘prudish’. It is not in good fun- stuff like this all adds up. In itself is this harmful? not reall. But look at the bigger picture and it gets really depressing……
I put up with sexist bullshit in Sci Fi fandom and real life. I don’t want to have to put up with it from the marketers!! I like sex and fun as much as the next girl, but that needn’t be at the cost of dignity an respect for people.
89. Ala Mode 112 –
“dear lord, some people here are idiots.”
Hm, I guess that’s your way of saying that you’re the one with the correct opinion.
I think you are cornfusing “sexy” and “sexist”…
Franky says Relax…
“I think you are cornfusing “sexy” and “sexist”…”
See my description of this below fr why i happen to find it sexist. And as someone who is very much appreciative of the female form, if you get my drift, I’d normally be biased towards liking this.
“Hm, I guess that’s your way of saying that you’re the one with the correct opinion.”
…uuhm, would I have posted it if I thought it was wrong? yes, I think I’m right. I happen to be confident in my ability to make a judgement on the sole use of women *purely* as sex objects for men to ogle to promote smething entirely unrelated as sexist. I apologise if you find the idea of someone believing themselves to be right to be strange or upsetting somehow.
its like a halloween party, dress up, have fun, its would be a blast
@72, Si:
“Yes, ’sex sells’. But the idea that we should buckle up and live with that idea is part of why it sells. If people refuse to accept it, perhaps it can be phased out. I agree that complaining here is hardly going to stop it, but I really think that simply sighing and saying oh well perpetuates the fact that people just accept horrible stuff like this as normal. Change requires, above all else, acknowledgement of there being a problem at all.”
Sex? Horrible? I find your prude sentiments to be far more distateful and more deserving of being subverted than the depiction, sale, and celebration of sex in popular culture (or the act itself). Sex is a part of human nature. Those who disagree with this are the same people who want to keep condoms out of reach of high school kids.
Oh, and SEXUAL doesn’t always mean SEXIST.
@92 Star Trek and Orion Slave Girls are very related to each other :P
….Kinky as hell too….I mean c’mon, green and blue women, women with vulcan ears…nuff said.
Are you sh*ting me? LOL, this is hilarious. Is it April fool’s already?
91. I am not Herbert,
Wow, busting out a Frankie Goes to Hollywood reference in 2009. I bow in awe.
94. Spock with a Crowbar.
No, objectification of women in a derogatory manner is horrible. Sex is fine. Seriously, I really don’t mean to be prudish, guys. The thing is, ’sex sells’ doesn’t mean ‘healthy and happy consensual sex sells’. It means ‘the objectification of women, and saying women are for the use of men sells’, I find. It means ‘heteronormativity sells’. It mean ‘unrealistic and harmful standards sell’.
I’ve been f5ing this page like mad and following the arguments, and Ala’s caught my eye.
“…the sole use of women *purely* as sex objects for men to ogle to promote s[o]mething entirely unrelated as sexist.”
That’s what this is. It isn’t sex in a healthy, positive and brilliant way. It’s putting women out there as JUST sex objects, dancing around for people to stare at like freak shows. ONLY women. With no reason whatsoever- there’s no context here, really.
If pretty girls getting paid to be models at a part is offensive to you, I’m guessing you never leave your house. You should SEE the OTHER stuff that goes on in the outside world!!!
Good party = few drinks, pretty women, tight jams
Bad party = 1 bottle of microbrew, discussions on the exploitation of women, and Arlo Guthrie records.
At least where I come from anyway…
100. Julio.
I do go outside. That’s why I give a damn about this shit. Because I face it, like most women.
And just for the record? You enjoying it? Doesn’t change the fact it’s not right. It happening a lot doesn’t either. And no, the fact the individual models are paid doesn’t stop the fact that on a large scale this shit is why I’m scared to GO to parties, why I can’t do a lot of fun stuff because I get harrassed by people assuming that because people like these paid models are OK or act OK with catcalls, and come ons, and all sorts of stuff, so am I.
Come on guys, what’s wrong with beautiful girls dancing? Every club has beautiful girls dancing. When entertainment is involved, nice girls are always present, and I don’t think that they are feeling “used” or whatever.
Relax and enjoy the party.
99. By that logic, hot green women would have to be entirely unrelated to Star Trek.
Go ahead ask any nontrekker, (M or F) what comes to mind when they think of Star Trek.
If pointy ears and HOT GREEN DANCING WOMEN aren’t in the short list, then I’ll concede right now.
It takes a certain kind of person to find sexism in this situation, and those types usually dance alone and go home early :)
98. Thomas – March 27, 2009
“Wow, busting out a Frankie Goes to Hollywood reference in 2009. I bow in awe.”
YEAAHHH, BOIIIIIIYYYY!!!
(I just wish I had spelled Frankie correctly) …so I in turn bow to YOU, sir!
AMEN! My Crowbar wielding Brotha’!!
103. S wa C
You know, I find it rather amusing by this point that women dancing around semi naked purely for entertainment (of heterosexual men) reasons because of a silly cliche about a sci fi series- a rather lame excuse, since most people (non geeks, that is) I know actually mention rather a lot of things before that if they mention it at all- is somehow… not sexist. I mean, really, you honestly see nothing even potentially slightly problematic about women in almost nothing being reduced to their tits and arses for men?
I find it interesting most people here seem to be straight/maybe bi men who don’t mind as long as they find the girls ‘beautiful’. Hmm, why am I oh so not surprised..? (And the ‘everyone does it so it’s fine’ excuse is pathetic, people. Most people are homophobic, many people are racist, most people are… you see where I’m going with this? ‘They did it too’ is a third grader’s excuse.)
People are offended by adult women who are consensually paid to dance? Maybe I’ve lived in LA for too long, but that’s commonplace at a lot of clubs.
I’m also not offended when a pretty girl representing a beer company giving me a bottle-opening keychain comes up to me at a bar. I mean, I’ll still hit on her either way :P
And as far as sex selling Star Trek – I can say that the women of TNG sure did help a young lad like myself through puberty. And that’s ALL I’ll say about that. ;)
………….what the hell did I just read?
Now I KNOW that I’m not hip! Cuz I don’t get it.
oh man, this is getting fun.
Wow, Si.
Racism, Gaybashing, and Green Women dancing on the clock.
How can I even resond to someone who thinks that MOST people are homophobic? Someone who thinks that men are only capable of seeing T and A in the seminude fom?
It’s hard to debate with someone with such a low opinion of others. No wonder you’re “scared to go to parties”; you see evil and opression around every corner.
….Eugh. Hipsters. Sorry, this makes me think of the people at my school who put on a Star Wars shirt to try and be a “nerd”…. AKA to get attention.
I don’t want Trek to be trendy. Is that so wrong?
You know, the photobooth idea is pretty cool, but the dance party thing? wtf?
Ok. Im am Not a Herbert!!!!! I am Kool and Hip and Popular. Im a Geek for crying out louad. I am a Total geek when it comes to trek, So now i can be kool. Realy? Ok. How do I act. I Don’t know how to act since Trek is being kool. Somebody help me!!! I don’t know what to do.
106. Si: “I mean, really, you honestly see nothing even potentially slightly problematic about women in almost nothing being reduced to their tits and arses for men?”
Nothing whatsoever, as long as the men in question are Gentlemen, which of course, all Star Trek fans are, right? ;-)
…and of course, if the Ladies are game… =D
Saw Monsters Versus Aliens today. Slightly new movie trailer for “Star Trek” including a close up of Spock, and some odd shots of a creature moving through water tubes (?). Is this trailer being discussed anywhere else here?
Comments, lads?
Sorry. I had a geek attack. Im kool now. Realy!!. Would loved to have been dancing with the Orions!!!. Now that would be Totaly Kool!!!!
116, New trailer you say? I want to see it! Was it the the snow creature maybe?
Yeah, because we want Star Trek to be associated with some party that has the words “Designer Drugs” and “Friendly Fires” slapped on its promotional poster… *facepalms* O_O
I have a taste for lime suddenly…
Wow! Not only is Star Trek cool now, but so are Kids With Snakes! Once pop culture embraces Reading Amalgam Comics In Smeared Whitey Tighties, I can finally leave the house!
76:
Lt. Bailey:
“Honestly, I would not be caught dead at some LA hipster dance party where most of not all of those people could care less about ST lore and what it stands for. They are nothing but a bunch of phoney, want-to-be-cool because I have a cocktail in my hand, celebutants, male models out in their their rented Mercedes (or BMW). These are the real people who love and care about Star Trek. I found more true fans every time I went to ST: The Experience in Las Vegas because they knew what it is all about.”
Star Trek: The Experience is a tourist attraction, or was one. Fact is, and the problem is, no one cares about Star Trek lore except a few hundreds of thousands of us. That’s why the Experience closed.
Also, your stereotype of drunk male models driving, en masse, rented German cars may be a bit on the fringe of reality.
If this gets a few thoughtful 20-somethings into the cinema, I am all for it.
Is going mainstream a good thing or a bad thing?
It is a good thing as Trek gets the attention it deserves.
I am also concerneed it is a bad thing as it means changing things to make the movie to appeal to non fans.
This is not a jab at JJ ’s choices, it is a choice that needed to be done to get Trek to be a hit again. I just feel the mainstream cinema is too dumbed down these days,
Star Wars was the pop corn and Star Trek was the meat and potatoes if you get my drift.
Getting excited about the movie, despite my concerns about what JJ Abrams has changed and screwed up I am still looking forward to the film.
I guess I feel like a bunch of people are being invited to this party and us fans are also there wondering, who are these trendy and stereotypical youths crashing in. They don’t get Trek and why are they here? There is that vibe with this kind of promation.
I guess I loved the geek assosation with Trek, it felt like our thing that we got. To me this is making me feel Star Trek is no longer exclusive, that a quality will not be the same as it was.
Guess I am not making sense. I love the atmosphere of cons, that feeling that there are more us than you think and these felt like the fans I loved to meet it was cool.
With every joe wanting to see it I feel that part of the culture of Trek will be lost.
I also dread the JJ Abrams crowd thinking JJ is the creator of Trek and will be too shallow to realise Trek’s rich history before hand. I really hope the new fans will watch the stuff we grew up with.
It pains me when kids who watch the new Doctor Who never bother to watch the original Doctor Who. The new series follows on from the originals. Howver, I was pleased that there are kids who watch classic Doctor Who.
I hope the kids watch our Trek.
Hope this makes sense.
its sad that this shallow crowd is the main target audience rather than the Trek fans.
I am not a night club person
so since you are not a night club person, they shouldn’t market to them?
And what makes this group the ‘main target’…didnt you see the stuff about the Kelloggs boxes or the kid friendly trailer? this is just one thing amongst many that they are doing…and good for them.
Trek fans should not be threatened or bothered if the film gets marketed to people who are different than them. IDIC please
@125 You can’t afford making a Movie just for fans… they pumped in a lot of money and they have to get the double out of it….
And saying without exclusiveness it will lack quality is a bit to far and kind of Elitist “We are better”…
Well said, Anthony.
I grew up watching Star Trek TNG with my Dad. It was a big part of my very wholesome and nurturing childhood, and my love of Trek echoed loudly into my formative and college years.
Today I’m a professional illustrator and a fine artist in my spare time. I’m in my mid-20s and I go to parties like the one shown above in my off hours. That means I’m both a hipster and a life-long Trek fan.
I’ve been looking forward to this year because I know that 2009 will be the year that Star Trek will finally saturate every aspect of my life. I will eat Star Trek cereal, wear Star Trek cologne, buy Star Trek clothes, and even experience Star Trek oriented night life. I’m so happy :)
Somebody saying that a Star Trek Dance Party “sounds gay” (#77) is more offensive than the Dance Party itself would ever be to me.
At the risk of being called an “idiot,” let me say what may be daring in this day and age:
**There is nothing wrong with the objectification of women as long as the objectification is voluntary.**
There. I said it.
No one forced the women in the pictures to paint themselves green. They did it because it was something they wanted to do, or at least they didn’t find objectionable. (And please — no deterministic economic arguments about how objectification cannot be voluntary; as long as women and some men spend thousands of dollars on fashion and cosmetics, that argument simply won’t wash with me.)
The fact that some other people found it objectionable isn’t so surprising. What IS surprising, however, is that those people would probably otherwise consider themselves liberal and enlightened.
Conversations where liberals put down others because they don’t agree with the idea that objectification CAN BE, and sometimes IS, quite good indeed, are probably what gave some conservatives the idea that liberals can be as close-minded as the people they criticize.
I will say it again: Not only is objectification NOT HARMFUL. In some cases, it can be good — as long as it is voluntary.
The fact that some forms of objectification can be harmful is simply not enough to throw the baby — or babe — out with the bathwater.
Anyone who disagrees might also consider that “dihydrous monoxide” should be utterly banned. (For those who are not in the know, simply Google it. You might get a laugh.)
People need to relax when it comes to bringing new people into Trek Fandom. As if Trek was never marketed to the hipsters in the ’60s: Miniskirts…Go Go boots…Space Hippies…?
I’m laughing at the superior intellect.
Now all we need is Star Trek: Cribs Edition. Wait, they’ve already done that, but I don’t think I’m allowed to post the link here.
Looks utterly DUMB. I swear some of the stuff posted on this site is such dumb filler…
The movie posters are cool though! I give those two thumbs up…but this crap?
DUMB! DUMB! DUMB!!!
lol… I”m a clubber, and I have no problem with this whatsoever… :)
I went to an after-hours dance party after a Star Trek convention last year, and let me tell you, it was fun, fun, fun!
@130,
I objectify my GF for a moment every time I see her. I hope she feels the same :)
Precisely, 135. Objectification is what often gets the juices flowing. So to speak.
Don’t mistake my comment for a summary judgment pro or con.
All I’m saying is:
Star Wars never needed to market to the dance party or related crowds to get people into theaters, not even for the lousy prequels.
Neither did Indiana Jones.
Lucas even set the condition that no establishment that showed The Phantom Menace could serve alcohol or liquor. And yet that didn’t stop Episode I from becoming one of the biggest, if not the biggest, films of 1999.
Not an opinion or judgment, just a comparative fact.
126. Consistently the voice of reason. Thanks again.
Yes, but Star Wars had a fallback: It was the master of marketing toys. Its toys were what helped make it the 800-lb. gorilla of science fiction movies.
Had Star Wars: TPM been about twenty-somethings entering the Jedi Academy, it might very well have marketed itself toward the young barhopping crowd.
The current ST09 marketing is toward the younger set in several senses: Young children, with its Kelloggs and Playmates lines, and now the “ubercool” with its “Trek is hot” approach. Considering the content of the movie — filled with energetic young men and women — and the preferred demographic of many advertisers (twenty- and thirty-somethings), this marketing approach for this particular movie makes sense.
Nor is ST09 ignoring old fuddy-duddies like me. Old Spock is there, after all, and so is a very nice tribute to canon in the physical form of an Enterprise that looks like an updated version of the TMP Enterprise.
ST09 is attempting to cover more than one base at a time. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
What would be wrong, to the contrary, is to simply copy SW’s approach rather than creatively accessing all the possibilities that await.
Rest assured: Star Trek is not devalued merely because green-painted girls dance around to its beat. If it were, it wouldn’t be nearly be the redoubt it is.
Besides, after the marketing failures of Nemesis, I should think Paramount is doing the right thing by thinking outside of the box.
I’m cool with whatever marketing works. I just have this faint voice in the back of my mind saying “Remember bagels? That awesome thing you used to be able to get before the 80s happened? Remember bagels?”
Now, post-yuppie, everywhere I can go I can buy something _called_ a bagel. Wrong size, wrong texture, wrong flavor. Same general shape … shape is good. Green Orion chicks prove nothing if not that.
Will we see a time when, everywhere I go, I can find something called Star Trek?
I miss bagels.
But that’s just in the back of my head. In the foreground, I AM an American so anything that makes money is automatically more acceptable and morally rationalized and inherently better and than anything that makes less money. That’s the American way, after all, and it’s what Superman has fought so hard for, along with truth and that other thing.
But I still miss bagels.
I just hope the movie is good. The movie is already MADE, so the marketing campaign can’t, really, affect it one way or another. If a hipster enjoys it, that’s entirely cool provided he isn’t allowed to write the sequel :)
#139 – Totally concur – VERY well said.
You know, my girlfriend just sat down next to me and caught a glimpse of some of the comments here and jokingly said, “God, it’s almost like you can catch who still lives in their parents’ basement just by reading some of this!”
Now before we come off as some insensitive trolls or outsiders, we both love Star Trek – all the stereotype in-jokes are quite known to us – and I think that the best thing to take away from all this is that there is more than one way to have fun with Trek.
I’m 26 years old – I was raised on TOS on Laser Disc and TNG on television – I can quote most TOS episodes by heart – so yes, Star Trek IS – and always will be – my big fanboy thing, and I personally find it awesome that there are enough people out there that can play with Trek like this – that it’s NOT all kids-toys and conventions.
I only with I could have made it out there this weekend! They’d need high-pressure hoses to blast the smudged Orion-girl green paint off of me! XD
#126 – Anthony – thank you, IDIC for life!
- 24th CRS
41. Trekkie+Hipster=Matter+Anti-matter=Boom!
Somethings brought together simultaneously are not feasible. I think the Paramount marketing department has been taking “Designer Drugs.”
Thanks, 141. I appreciate your comments and agree with you, as well.
I’m down win the IDIC! Well hopefully they will do one of these in Las Vegas.
Anthony any word on if those cool posters will be available to the masses?
How can something you cherish, still have the same value, if it exists everywhere? this is wrong!!!!!!!!!! the suits are having their way with our beloved franchise and they need to be stopped!!!!!!
“**There is nothing wrong with the objectification of women as long as the objectification is voluntary.**”
The objectification of one woman who wants to be objectified leads to the objectification of women who don’t want to be by default. Men don’t discern between ‘that woman is paid for it and wants it so it’s ok’ and ‘this woman on the street didn’t get paid or consent’. That’s the thing. It’d be nice if they did. They don’t.
And to assume ALL the women who do things like this have had no pressure on them (monetary or whatever) is naive. (After all, WHY do these women think it’s fine to be objectified? Is it peer pressure? I’m sure some have perfectly good reasons and that’s fine. ‘I’m just as sure some feel they should, and that’s worrying. Nothing’s black and white.)
I think some people are overreacting like. majorly. but it does make me really uncomfortable. Mostly I just think Star Trek doesn’t need to stoop so low. I mean this is just… a bit crass. Cmon, where’s the class in this?
But I doubt anyone’ll remember these after the movie’s out anyway haha.
**SOME men don’t. Don’t mean to generalise. sorry ;)
146, that’s like saying that if you buy a nice-looking dress, other women who can’t afford it will want one, so nice-looking dresses are to be avoided. This isn’t too far away from the old Puritan standard of accoutrement. It achieves the same effect: If you take any pride in your physical form, then you will tempt others and therefore we should all wear the same unfashionable thing.
We could find instances of this kind of result in places around the world where, on religious grounds, women are told that they must wear only a certain style of clothing leaving them virtually unidentifiable.
Now, anything can be taken to an extreme, and reductio ad absurdem arguments are a dime a dozen. But since Trek is at least in part about individualism (IDIC), I think it is rather un-Trek to say that if individuals decide to flaunt their body, then that decision should be criticized because others who do not have the same desire MIGHT be harmed. This is because anything at all might be said to harm others and so if you make it a rule that anthing that MIGHT harm others is wrong, then you leave people with very few — if any — options to express their individuality. What replaces it is authoritarianism — religious, moral, political, or otherwise.
The very essence of individualism, if it means anything at all, is that you should do what you want as long as it does not ACTUALLY harm others. Further, intrinsic in this understanding is the implication of proximate cause. Even if what you do ACTUALLY harms another, if you are not sufficiently the cause of it, what you do is your own business.
For example, if the same KIND of thing as what you do in the privacy of your own home (e.g., have fun the way millions of college students have done on spring break) is found to actually cause harm to countless people through history, but YOUR actions, by themselves, do not, should your actions nevertheless be banned? I should say not.
This is not to say, either, that criticism, by itself, of objectification is to be banned. That would be wrong, too. But the difference is merely criticizing something is different from actually trying to impose one’s political or moral will on another. Anti-objectificationists are free to criticize as they want, but they should realize that their criticism should probably be to little avail if by such criticism, “politically correct” authoritarianism is the intentional or unintentional result.
I remember a long time ago, Star Trek was MY show! It was my own little cultish tv show that no one else liked or seemed to care about, but I loved every little detail about it. I read every book and magazine I could find on it. Heck, I even had a Lincoln Enterprises catalog! That was like Star Trek nirvana!
And somehow, Star Trek managed to flourish and rise again. Soon we had movies, and then TNG, all thanks to us zelous fans and Gene Roddenberry’s persistance. Times were good. Yet even back then, we still had protestors and detractors, saying “we want Star trek to be exactly the same as it was, or we won’t like/watch it.” Well, after 5 series, 10 movies, and over 700 episodes, they finally got their way, and guess what we got out that? Several years of nothing.
So now we finally have Star Trek rising up from the ashes yet again, and here are the same detractors again. I guess they liked all those years of nothingness?
My guess is that we had a bunch of fans that bought into the show back in the day, just like I did, and they felt “ownership” of the show. It was THEIR show, and how dare anyone try to update or make changes without consulting them first? Well, I hate to tell ya guys, but Gene passed the torch to B and B, and now the torch has been passed to JJ. What can you do? Either embrace change or don’t, but I have some news for you. The world is going to continue to change with or without your permission. You can stay at home, or get on board and enjoy the ride, your choice, but don’t bemoan the rest of us that want to embrace IDIC.
As for the dancing green girls, I hate to tell ya, but we’ve had them ever since the very first episode! They’ve been a part of Star Trek ever since! Shouldn’t we have risen above this type of objectification by now, some ask? In a perfect world, I would say yes, but this world is far from perfect. There is a fine line that constantly fluctuates and has yet to be clearly drawn. The world will always be dysfunctional, but as long we embrace IDIC and the higher moral ideology that Gene envisioned, we can all strive to make the world a better place, and live long and prosper.
Didn’t see this happening, although the guy in the silver jacket doesn’t look like a hipster, he looks like a Trek nerd. Love the Mugato-prise.
I also like the Orion flaunting her Vulcan gang symbol.
149, I agree with your sentiments, as well. In the ideal world, we would be as pleased with platonic relationships as with more sexualized ones, but I’m not sure we will ever get to it.
There is something about being human that involves aesthetics. It’s been the product of evolution; it’s necessary for the propagation of the species.
I do agree, of course, that objectification, like sex, can be taken too far, and become destructive. Anything can, and it’s an unfortunate fact.
In everything is the seeds of its own destruction. It’s a yin-yang thing, I guess.
CHANGE….
Change is the only constant in the Multi-verse.
- W -
* If there is to be a bright and shiny future, you and I will have the hardest time living in it *
Well said, 153.
All I ask for, is a tall photobooth, and a Star Trek to steer her by!
Hey Anthony,
You are going to do an article on the Enterprise models painted by different people aren’t you? I kinda like that sort of thing and hopefully they’ll be auctioned off for charity which is always godd to do, especially now!
I guess I have to stop feeling threatened by all the changes.
I mean the Star Trek we each grew up with will always be there.
Hopefully the new fans will get hooked on the original shows and some of the spin offs and see that the Star Trek we grew up with is still great. Perhaps they will see why it means so much to us.
Truth is I am pumped for this film, I am excited and want it to make Star Trek good again. I just don’t want people to forget of the Trek that came before.
The changes in design are not what I would have done, and I still have preference to the original designs but I hope to apprecuiiate the new designs when I see the film.
Change is what we have to get use to. I guess I feel like Kirk at the start of The Undiscovered Country.
Uh, if you want Star Trek to get past the Blow Up Doll jokes on Leno, you want the kids who go to Dance Parties.
I’d really like to know more about the designer drugs at the Webster Hall event, becau…
Hm?
Oh, that’s the name of the DJ.
Never mind.
Hipsters? Give me a break. Who cares what self-impressed freaks think of Star Trek.
#119
Designer Drugs are a remix team. Admittedly, not the best remix team around. But Friendly Fires are an absolutely ace band out of the UK. Let’s not lose our minds over ironic/clever/funny band names.
Hipsters arrrrgggghhh I live in a city full of them. The future home to Star Fleet HQ.;) Wait a sec. this is all too ironic.;)
[...] Well, that’s sort of where I come in. I’m helping to make it cool by throwing these six international Star Trek Dance Parties. Wherever I am, the hipsters are, so the new Star Trek movie is benefitting from massive exposure [...]
This is a post about Star Trek right.?
Free T-shirts should be dispensed at the door: “Don’t Be a HERBERT!”
Most pathetic Star Trek article. Ever.
I agree with #21. As a fan of the show as well as from that generation,
I don’t understand why the younger generation can’t make their own parties for their own generation’s shows. Why take a classic and ruin it?
This isn’t what Gene had in mind.
Star Trek will live forever without the retards.
There is no better proof than this that this film was not made with traditional fans in mind.
I just want one of those Enterprise kits !!!
We did a thing like this for the 25th anniversary, you could have sailed the QE2 through the rift between hipsters and nerds.
Pffffft. Those “Orion” wannabees just wanted to wear skimpy clothing and paint their bodies green. xP
But at least we know the word’s getting out.
I almost can’t bear the irony of targeting hipsters as part of media campaign for a tent pole movie. However, by acknowledging the irony of society’s entanglement with the mass media establishment, I myself have transcended into hipsterism. I am now an oxymoron.
4. MattTheTrekkie – March 27, 2009
Star Trek along with Social Mainstream Dance Parties and the Hipster Crowd?
Socially accepted Star Trek? Really? Does that mean I’m cool now? :D
#4 Sorry I wish I could say yes, but – No not cool – yet.
The marketing dollars have kicked in to make Star Trek LOOK cool to younger people in hopes that some will bite.
Wow, Hipsters have ruined Punk, Hardcore, Skateboarding, Activism…etc. Now they have gotten their grubby paws on Star trek.
Well at least they will never ruin science, because they are all inherently stupid and suck at it anyway.
#172
Your post confirms mine. Get over yourself.
#175
I can’t, I am now totally awesome. I’m blinded by the bright light I emit into the stream of our consciousness. I understand your jealousy, it’s hard to be around someone who has transcended so effortlessly and perfectly into Hipsterism. However, your jealousy just confirms the awesome ironic intent in this post, the site, the marketing, and therefore, society. If only you could see what I see.
#176
I can’t. Obviously I cannot match your eminent greatness, not being a hipster as you are. You and your kind are surely the epitome of evolution for any sentient being, as I’m sure all hipsters like yourself believe. Long live those who don’t have the fortitude to make their own path and choose to follow the idiot party-seeking masses instead!
P.S. No hard feelings. No insult intended.
[...] seen has been in relation to the wild hipster dance parties that Paramount has been putting on (go here for more details). I didn’t think much about them, they sounded super cheesy, and hipsters suck, so I forgot about [...]
[...] is back in action. Bad news: It’s in the form of dance parties. A few weeks ago, Trek Movie reported on an event at the Hollywood club LAX. However, it wasn’t just any party. One of the photos [...]