Why Does One Particular Funny People Poster Lack Adam Sandler's Name?

The LAT's Patrick Goldstein has a problem! Even though virtually every poster for Judd Apatow's Funny People has above-the-title credits for Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen, and Leslie Mann, the only poster that Goldstein has seen (a Los Angeles billboard, no doubt pointed out to him by the Brentwood pre-teens or Hollywood producers whose lunches provide most of the material for Goldstein's columns) lacked those credits. This is clearly an issue, as no one has any idea what Adam Sandler looks like without being told. So what happened?

Let's parse the relevant bits of the article, shall we?

When I was driving to the Santa Monica farmers market the other morning, I found myself stuck in traffic next to a big bus with an ad for the upcoming Judd Apatow picture, Funny People. The ad has a photo of Adam Sandler with the film's costars, Seth Rogen and Leslie Mann. Even though Sandler plays a character in the film who thinks he's dying, the ad makes him look quite cheerful.

Sadly, Goldstein's assertion is foiled by a plucky intern's decision to place an image of the poster at the top of the article, proving that Goldstein's "quite cheerful" is another man's "can barely muster up a half-smile due to life-threatening health issues." But continue!

I have to admit what really grabbed me was the fact that even though Universal is paying Sandler a boatload of moola to star in a movie whose budget is somewhere north of $70 million, the studio didn't bother to put the world's biggest comedy star's name on the ad. Instead of seeing Sandler's name under the photo, we get one of those "if you liked these movies, you'll really like this one" reminders that reads: "The third film from the director of 40-Year-Old Virgin and Knocked Up, which raises [a question]: Why do we need to know it's Apatow's third movie?

All right, Patrick, let's think about this! You're a movie columnist...perhaps you're familiar with the fact that Apatow is a prolific producer whose credits have been name-checked on countless comedies since his first film, and by reminding audiences that Apatow himself has only directed two of them (and probably the best received two, at that), marketers can immediately distinguish Funny People from the herd?

As it turns out, since there are three actors in the photo, if Universal wanted to use their names, guild restrictions involving outdoor advertising would have required the studio to run a billing block for the movie (that ugly block of type listing all the major contributors to the film, which is often bloated with the name of 14 different producers). Even worse, according to Fogelson, the size of the billing block is tied to the size of the movie title and the size of the name of the actors.

Ok, sure! Good job, Patrick, you have unearthed something interesting. Now, let's see if you can stick the landing.

On the other hand, last year 20th Century Fox ran big billboards for Australia that featured likenesses of Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman without ever identifying who they were. The movie hardly took the U.S. by storm.

Yes, completely comparable situations. I think we all remember that Adam Sandler was once set to take unimpeachable box office titan Nicole Kidman's role in Australia. It would have been very sexy.

· 'Funny People' ads: Did Universal forget how to spell Adam Sandler? [LAT]