JJ Abrams and the beautiful dying fan marketing tradition :-)

I noticed this too! They were clearly trying to start a viral thing here, with the slow leaking and teasing of info with the guest spots on the talk show circuit, and nobody gave a crap!

While Disney owns the comic character, Sony is the one that has the license for Spiderman movies. Obviously, Disney doesn't want positive marketing boosting a movie they don't own.

The kid should have asked about having Brie Larsson's Captain Marvel instead. Kids nowadays are so insensitive about the marketing needs of big companies!

It's not like Disney's board members all sat around making the decision to deny the dad's request. Denial is obviously the standard response for the employees working there. Most employees are working class who aren't going to take the time to push the request up the chain just to satisfy the emotional wishes of a guy in England.

Did he did it with Star Trek 4, and Star Trek 3, and Star Trek 2, and the first one?

Doing it once or twice, that's a beautiful gesture. Doing it systematically, as a planned element of marketing, the month before every major release, that's beautiful marketing.

Well, if you do it once or twice perhaps it's just some spontaneous decision. Let's give the benefit of the doubt.

When it's something repeated, the same pattern, again and again, that's marketing.