Dustin Stanton of Eclipse Advertising on Star Wars, Legion Season 3 and 'Netflix Is a Joke'

Dustin Stanton, creative director at Eclipse Advertising, has been immersed in entertainment advertising for 30 years. Prior to Eclipse, he worked at agencies such as BLT and Concept Arts on numerous acclaimed theatrical, network and streaming campaigns, as well as with numerous musicians, filmmakers and gaming companies. 

We spoke with Dustin for our new Q&A series Backstory, where we chat with folks in the entertainment industry about their creative inspirations and more.

Dustin, tell us … 

Your first job in the industry.

My first job was a delivery driver. I was working for an agency taking actual physical comps, photographic prints and mechanicals back and forth to the movie studios.

A breakthrough moment in your career.

When I had to go out there and get my own work.

Three movies you couldn’t do without.

Only three?!!!

1. Star Wars (A New Hope) opened my eyes to what cinema could be. The sounds, the scale of the world that Lucas created was unlike anything else I’d known. I was only 7 years old, but …

2. Pulp Fiction because holy fuck. Amazing style, dialogue, food, music, characters! The interwoven nature of it is so captivating and cool. Pulp Fiction changed the game.

3. Jaws because it is such a good example of high-concept filmmaking. Pure terror in the ocean. Everyone feeding into the fear. People were petrified to go into the ocean after that film. Spielberg got so much right in Jaws.

Your favorite movie quote.

“You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” —Obi-Wan Kenobi

Your favorite movie trailer and poster.

Trailer: The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

It’s so simple and effective. Leveraging the success of the first film with the copy crashing on screen to lightning and thunder. SOMETHING HAS SURVIVED. Giving way to a T-Rex’s defeating howl. Chilling.

Poster: Star Wars.

This poster is so juicy. It has a classic fantasy, romantic, swashbuckling, adventure vibe that I instantly loved when I saw it as a kid. Great color palette and scale of the storytelling. Super strong composition and legibility.

A classic TV show and a recent TV show you loved.

M.A.S.H.
The Office.

A recent project you’re proud of.

FX’s Legion Season 3, outdoor campaign. It was so fun and challenging to work on. I’ve always been a big fan of late ’60s psychedelic art, so I really enjoyed the process as well as the outcome. I’m proud, not only for the work we did on it with our team at Eclipse, but there were several companies and artists involved in the whole campaign. Very cool to be a part of it.

Someone else’s project that you admired recently.

“Netflix Is a Joke.” While I appreciate tons of others’ projects, this campaign stood out to me as being particularly brilliant and effective advertising. Call me old-fashioned, but I love it when typography is simple, inviting, eye-catching, provocative and topical.

One thing about how entertainment marketing is evolving that you’re excited about.

I’m excited to see more interaction with audiences. Whether its through social media, out of home, virtual/alternate reality engagements or large-scale performance installations. 

Today, entertainment marketing is more about getting the message out there in new ways to very specific audiences. Of course, it happens mostly online, but by fine-tuning messaging based on psychographic and demographic spending data, marketers are able to target their customers like never before.

What would you be doing if you weren’t in entertainment marketing.

Smashing guitars in a rock ‘n’ roll band.