Among other things, Apple is known for its clear messaging and high level of quality control. Which is why it was slightly strange when a poster for upcoming Apple TV+ movie Cherry failed totally on both these counts. It featured an all-but-illegible title on its “For Your Consideration” campaign poster for Best Picture.
Don’t worry, though. The flick hasn’t been renamed CHERk, 0HER88 or 8HERK in post-production. Nor is this terrible typeface a marketing stunt. Instead, it seems that trade publication Variety just shared the wrong version of the poster.
Variety apologizes for our mistake in the digital misprint of the ad for the film “Cherry.” This is not up to our standards. Here is the corrected version of the ad pic.twitter.com/yRr1uEfMNo
— Variety (@Variety) December 23, 2020
The movie, which stars Tom Holland and Ciara Bravo, is the first movie made by the Russo brothers since Avengers: Endgame, the top-grossing movie of all time. It’s based on the bestselling 2018 novel Cherry by Nico Walker. Loosely autobiographical, it tells the story of a soldier who returns from fighting in Iraq, gets addicted to Oxycontin, and then becomes a bank robber to pay for his opiate addiction. The author has just completed a spell in prison, having been there since 2013.
Cherry will debut on Apple TV+ on March 12. If early buzz is to believed, this could be a big awards winner for Apple. So long as Academy voters now which movie to watch based on the title screw-up.
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
