Marketing, Promotion and the Internet in relation to This Is England

Unsurprisingly, This Is England had a relatively small advertising budget. Made up of just one poster and trailer (most probably created by Meadows himself), the extent of money used was relatively little, considering the film itself had a budget of only £1.5 million.

The poster used features all main characters lined up against a wall, seemingly in a run-down British council estate. With the film's title hugely printed across, it's themes of Britishness and youth culture in the film are entirely recognisable. Numerous characters are clearly part of the 'skinhead culture', and so therefore this again signifies to the audience an insight into what the narrative may feature. Therefore, this may specifically apply to the Explorer. They tend to step away from convention, and the punk, gritty feel of the poster may also apply to them. The use of graffiti and anarchy suggests individuality, and therefore again appealing deeply to the Explorer group. The film also appears unique in that there no focus of one specific protagonist, but rather a large group with many cast-mates. The use of film festival awards again implies the uniqueness and organic quality of the film. 

The website of Shane Meadows himself entirely fits in with the previous themes of anarchy that have been used. Splatters of red not only connote vandalism but more sincerely blood. The black industrial style background further ties into the genre of 'Social realist', which clearly many of Meadow's films are. Close up's of the characters allow the viewer to have a sense of which characters we should be identifying with, plus who will make more of an impact throughout the film.

Clearly a main form of advertising for any film, regardless of it's buzz or budget is a movie trailer. This Is England's trailer quite obviously portrays a coming of age study, as well as using traditional British iconography to allow the viewer to realise what the film may portray. The genre of social realism is also made all the more apparent in the film, with themes of racism, class and sex represented in the two and a half minutes shown to us. The trailer ends with breaking the ultimate fourth-wall, and making the upmost connection with the viewer themselves. This is that Shaun looks directly to us, therefore creating the biggest form of a connection with the viewer.