Marty’s Supreme Marketing: A Cultural Moment
11/29/25
I just saw something overhead that made me question reality.
Well, the reality of marketing.
I’m driving through L.A. (City of Angeles, not Louisiana) and saw a bright orange blimp flying. I took the crappy picture below simply to read the writing. It said: “Marty Supreme.”
I took the bait. Dearest Google, who is Martin Supreme and why is he flying over Dodger City? Result: Marty Supreme is an upcoming film set in the ’50s starring Timothée Chalamet. Hmmm. Click link. Johanna Brooslin says writer/director “Josh Safdie artfully captures a restless society ready for reinvention and renewal while still healing from past trauma.” Consider my interest piqued. Sounds like it’s partly a commentary on our current society’s restlessness and desire for reinvention (even if some people wish for a past era that never existed). Sounds cool, daddy-o.
But Google’s second offering fascinated me. It was an article by Preetika Ravidas titled “Timothée Chalamet’s bizarre Marty Supreme press run taps into a deeper cultural mood.” Ravidas says:
Over the last decade, daily life has become defined by economic pressure, political stagnation, and a general sense of grinding seriousness. Even entertainment, once a shared escape, has splintered into dozens of micro-fandoms spread across an ever-expanding landscape of platforms and formats. In that environment, the appetite for something genuinely communal, and spontaneous has only sharpened.
That’s a great contrast. But how did the film do it?
Apparently, Chalamet was the face of impromptu Time Square previews, sweatshirt giveaways, the blimp, and more. None of the campaign has to do with the movie’s plot but that doesn’t matter. Marketing is about people remembering the brand and partaking. Sure, for longevity a film should actually be good (and a quick scroll of reviews shows Marty Supreme to be well, supreme), but people must see it first.
And that’s why Marty’s marketing is genius. Now, I don’t like advertising, unless it’s good.
Marty Supreme is a drama, but that doesn’t necessitate stoic, rigid, or serious marketing. Case in point: I just finished the first volume of Stranger Things Season 5 episodes where the show is dramatic but the merchandise is fun. And Marty Supreme’s advertising is experiential fun. The careless joy of being carefree. I mean, big-name celebrities are sporting Marty Supreme swag unpaid. Just part of the whimsy!
I think Chalamet’s big-budgeted experiential approach could signal a change for the industry. Then again, it is an anomaly because it is pure and fun and funny. And Hollywood’s agencies would just make it cookie-cluttered.
In conclusion, I’ll break the fourth wall[i] (and you thought my conversational style couldn’t get worse) by acknowledging a writer is never supposed to end on someone else’s quote. It lessens their authority. But hey, Chalamet and Marty Supreme have given me an unwarranted boldness for out-of-the-box risk taking. Plus Preetika Ravidas states this better than I could: “When news cycles feel endless and algorithms flatten everything into sameness, a burst of collective silliness feels almost restorative. Perhaps that is the true meaning of the orange blimp: a reminder that in a world where so much feels heavy and joy is scarce, even the silliest idea can become a cultural moment.”
[i] Like Ryan Reynolds, another current marketing innovator.
Would have loved to take a crappy zoom-in blimp pic too. Loved reading your take!