Plausible Deniability Is One Thing....

...but sometimes you run into Implausible Deniability.

Today's New York Times carries an article by Brooks Barnes on the debate in Hollywood over so-called "red band trailers" -- essentially, R-rated trailers for R-rated movies. Most trailers are "green band": even for a blood-and-guts R-rated movie, the trailer will be edited to show less violence, no skin, and little offensive language.

Red-band trailers -- so-called because the reels in which they are delivered to movie theaters carry a red band, to warn projectionists that they should not be spliced onto a "G", "PG", or "PG-13" film -- are in fact rarely seen in theaters. In a multiplex, it's too easy for mix-ups to be made, and many theaters simply refuse to run them.

The problem, of course, is the Internet. Nearly all trailers can be found online quickly, but, as Barnes notes, "the red-band ones speed across the Internet with an added velocity because of their 'can you believe what they just said' nature."

The current brouhaha is about an upcoming Lionsgate picture called "Kick-Ass". The green-band trailer can be seen here; the red-band is here (you will be asked to enter your name, partial address, and birthdate; but, not to encourage unethical behavior, if you lie, you can get in....). Or you can go to the website of corporate behemoth Time Warner's Entertainment Weekly, and not bother with the "registration": click here.

The trailers focus primarily on the adventures of a teenage boy who wants to be a superhero (the eponymous Kick Ass) and the 11-year-old Hit Girl. In the green-band version, you get snark and some violence. In the red-band version, Hit Girl's language is way beyond the kind of vulgarity I'd be able to post here (note that the actress playing Hit Girl is now 13); and the violence is way past what I'd want to see (I know: I'm hardly the target audience).

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which issues the G/PG/PG-13/R/NC-17 ratings and which governs movie advertising, requires that access to red-bands be protected by age requirements. So Lionsgate is doing the "right" thing.

Note that Warner Bros (also a Time Warner company, like Entertainment Weekly, referenced above) is an official member of the MPAA.

Barnes quotes this pious statement from the MPAA's senior vp for advertising: "We devote enormous resources to making certain that kids don't encounter these trailers. That said, we can't scrub the entire Internet."

The MPAA has demanded that sites that provide "unrestricted" access to red-band trailers remove them, and most comply. But it's still absurdly easy to get past the "requirements," and fans then distribute the trailers widely on blogs (like this one!!) and other social media.

Meanwhile, Lionsgate is reaping publicity benefits right and left.

Sounds to me like having one's cake and eating it too.