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Taking over
from Sarah Harman as United International Pictures Promotions Manager for
A View To A Kill (1985) was Paul Lewis. The Exhibitors’
Campaign Book reproduces a letter from him reminding UK cinema managers of the need to put the new
James Bond film on the map at a local level. A View To A Kill
opened in the UK with a Royal
Charity Premiere at the ODEON Leicester Square on June 12, 1985,
following its US debut in San Fransisco three weeks earlier. The Campaign
Book stated that there was a great promotional campaign for A View To A
Kill and reiterated that “Every time there is a piece of
merchandise or a store display, there is free advertising for the film.”
Following its West End debut, A View To A Kill was released in
major cities from Friday June 14, 1985, and then at coastal resorts from
July 5th to take advantage of the school summer holidays. With the James
Bond films now aimed at a younger demographic, UIP hoped to take advantage of
the captive audience, and profits were boosted by unusually poor weather
that summer, forcing people off the beaches and into cinemas. |
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Dutch consumer
electronics company Philips (founded in Eindhoven in 1891)
entered into a marketing deal with EON Productions/DANJAQ for A
View To A Kill, with over 100 products supposedly featured in the
film. One of the prominent on-screen items was a modified
Philishave electric razor used to de-bug a room in Max Zorin's
(Christopher Walken) French château. Other Philips products
seen in the film include a voice recorder, mini cassette, and a colour
monitor used by Zorin to confirm the identity of James Bond who is
adopting the persona of horse breeder James St. John Smythe.
Philips made
the most of their 007 connection in the year that marked their
Diamonds Jubilee in the UK. To coincide with the the release of A
View To A Kill, Philips ran a major national promotion for
colour televisions, and a competition to win a Renault II TXE (also
featured in the film), with runner-up prizes of Philips Compact
Disc players, microwave ovens, VHS Video Recorders and Personal
Radios.
Promotional
double-crown posters (20" X 30") were produced for the Philips
tie-in which adapted the
American
advance teaser artwork by Daniel Goozee, and colour point-of-sale
materials available for in-store displays featuring Philips
products. Philips Business Systems organised a second
competition that ran in selected UK newspapers in May 1985, offering
prizes worth over £1,000 to the ‘perfect secretary’ for James Bond |
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Following their
successful promotion linked with Octopussy (1983), Smiths Crisps
launched another promotion to tie-in with A View To A Kill (1985).
For children there was the ability to acquire three colour posters (22" X
33") featuring scenes from the film; with adult consumers given the chance
to win a Renault 11 Turbo in addition to other prizes arranged with
different UK supermarkets, newsagents and cash & carry outlets. |
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During July/August 1985 a
promotion on twin packs of Wright's Coal Tar Soap offered consumers
the opportunity to purchase the new style “Official James Bond 007 Quartz
Watch” for just £7.99 (RRP £18.99). In addition to their new Melody Alarm
watch, Zeon also produced a James Bond twin-bell mechanical alarm
clock. |
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British company
Burton's Gold Medal Biscuits featured an exclusive offer of a free
James Bond model Rolls-Royce via a promotion on packets of ‘Jammie
Dodgers’ biscuits, which ran from June to December 1985. Consumers
were able to obtain the Matchbox model of the Rolls-Royce
Silver Cloud II featured in A View To A Kill [actually producer
Albert R. Broccoli's own car was used in the film], by sending off
five ‘Jammie Dodgers’ wrappers plus 18p postage. The promotion was
featured on over 3.5-million packs nationally and supported by a full
range of point-of-sale material in the grocery trade.
The Rolls-Royce and
Renault 11 taxi featured in A View To A Kill were the first new
licenced James Bond models since the demise of CORGI Toys, who had
produced scale models from the EON Productions series since 1965. The
Matchbox Brand was introduced by British die-cast company
Lesney Products in 1953, who had also entered bankruptcy in 1982.
The brand name originated from the matchbox-sized packaging which
first housed the small-scale models. By 1983 the Matchbox brand
was owned by Chinese company Universal Toys, who were granted
the licence to produce the James Bond models for A View To A Kill
(1983). Matchbox later issued a ‘Licence To Kill
Gift Set’ which included four vehicles from the 1989 film. The
Matchbox brand was sold to American manufacturer Tyco Toys
in 1992, which in turn was bought out by Mattel in 1997. |
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The A View To A Kill
Campaign Book contained details of the availability of free James Bond
role playing games that could be offered as prizes for approved
competitions [pictured below left]. Manufactured by US company Victory
Games from 1983-87, there were a total of 12 tabletop role-playing
games (and five supplemental modules) based on the James Bond films and
books, and therefore licenced jointly by EON Productions and Glidrose
Publications Ltd. T. M. Games of North Finchley in London handled
the distribution in the UK. |
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In 1985 EON Productions &
Glidrose Publications Ltd. licenced the character of James Bond to UK
software developer Domark Ltd, who developed a computer game inspired by scenes in A View To A Kill (1985). Although two
previous James Bond computer games had been released in 1982/83 this was
the first to be linked to a specific film, rather than the character of
Bond himself. A 007 video game was briefly mentioned in the Octopussy
Exhibitors’ Campaign Book but not illustrated - this would undoubtedly have
been ‘James Bond 007’ from Parker Bros. - the first officially
licenced computer game. An early unlicensed text-based adventure game
titled ‘Shaken but Not Stirred’ had been released in the UK in 1982 by
Richard Shepherd Software for the ZX Spectrum. ‘A View To A Kill’
[pictured above right] was a single-player action adventure game and available for the ZX
Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, MSX, and Oric. The crude
graphics were in keeping with other titles in released the early days of
the burgeoning video games industry. |
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Renault UK ran a
promotion associated with A View To A Kill (1985) in each of their
500 dealers and Renault Autopoints. With a first prize of a
Renault 11 Turbo, and 100 soundtrack cassettes for runners-up, the
promotion was advertised with extensive point-of-sale materials, including
a colour poster (24" X 32") [pictured above left]. W. H. Allen
distributed ‘A View To A Kill The Official Movie
Magazine’ to tie in with the release of the film. Available in cinema
foyers, the magazine featured articles, stills, interviews and
behind-the-scenes material. Retailing at £2.50, with 68-pages in full
colour, the souvenir magazine was available for the general release of
A View To A Kill in the Summer of 1985. |
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