‘Is the 2019 ‘Joker’ film a means of making money or a representation of mental illness?

’
Eve Margaret Bremmer

Introduction

In this research paper, I will be focusing on whether Joker was a promoted with the intention of making
money or, if it is a representation of mental illness stemming from the central character, Arthur Fleck. I
have constructed my research around two main sections: literature review and findings. These will help
me to form my conclusion towards the end of the paper. The literature review is based around relevant
and existing scholarly readings that will introduce key ideas explored further within the findings. Twitter
is the main source of analysis I have based my findings around – with Joker being a current film, it will
allow me to find relevant and up-to-date data from specific audiences.

Literature review

This section provides credible academic work with close relativity to my research question. Scholarly
sources are combined with the chosen media text.

According to A. Wernick (1991:184): “promotion is a mode of communication… defined not by what it

says, but by what it does”. If promotion is defined by “what it does”, then the promotion of Joker could
be linked to two different things: a means of making money or stimulating the discussion of mental
health.

P. Corrigan (2004:614:) argues the ideology that: “Stigma is one of several reasons why people make
such choices; namely, social– cognitive processes motivate people to avoid the label of mental illness that
results when people are associated with mental health care.” The context of this research was raised from
people not taking up necessary treatment for their illness due to the negative discourse surrounding it.
Arthur Fleck represents a person in society who gradually fades deeper into insanity, the character
himself recalls to his therapist that “all I have are negative thoughts.”

M. Evans (2019), in a recent article surrounding the perception of mental health in the Joker film, argues
that: “It’s uncomfortable, it’s awkward and it’s 100% something we need to realise is happening around
us, not just in Gotham City.” This is just one perspective of the film but it is reflective of how the film’s
stance on mental health has been promoted to its audience.

Advertising is predominantly used as a means of capturing the emotions and interests of the public. The
film’s main storyline is centered around the backstory of Arthur Fleck. Initially, the advertising of the
film seemed to show a strong theme of mental illness, influencing the audience to feel empathy. It can be
argued that Joker is spreading the discussion of mental health in its promotion by capturing the emotions
of the public. Heath, R., Brandt, D. and Nairn, A (2006) argue that “it is the communication of the factual
message that gives advertising its persuasive power”. Joker perhaps shares the reality of living with a
mental illness and the way society responds to it – this could be the “factual message” that is utilised as a
source of promotion for the film.

On the other hand, it can be argued that in order for Joker to be a success, it focuses on capturing the
emotions of the public as a way of pushing sales. Bagozzi, Gopinath and Nyer (1999:192) discuss the
possible idea that “Emotions or moods trigger buying responses”, influenced by the claims of Gardner
1
(1985). This could show a possible intention of Joker’s promotion – to capture the emotions of the public
in order to drive sales.

According to A. Wernick (1991:184): “promotion is a mode of communication… defined not by what it

says, but by what it does”. Considering the Joker movie, “what it does” could be linked to two different
things: means of making money and promoting mental health.

Within the film industry, the main goal of most productions is to maximise sales within the box office.
Even though Joker has a storyline of mental health, it can be argued that there was at least some type of
money-making scheme that just happened to touch on mental health.

Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor, first introduced the marketing mix model that centers around
four factors: Promotion, price, product and place. It was not until the early 20th century that this was
adapted further. Dr. B. R Londhe (2014:337) proposes the ideology that the model is “a conceptual
framework that identifies the principal decision-making … in configuring their offerings to suit
consumers’ needs”. It can be understood that the main basis of Londhe’s argument, is that the consumer
is of most importance when it comes to the success of that specific product. This can be reverted back to
Joker as without the attention of consumers, the success of the film would not have been achievable in the
same way.

Social media now is becoming one of the largest platforms to promote ideas onto. Mangold, W.G. and
Faulds, D.J (2009:361) stimulate the debate that: “consumers are turning away from
the traditional elements of the promotion mix; in particular, they are reducing their
reliance on advertising as a source of information to guide their purchase decision-
making.” In his research, Faulds merits the use of social media in the sense that it
has now created a new communication paradigm. A traditional source of promotion
is through the use of merchandise yet, Joker fails to have any. This opens the
question as whether it was because of its dark undertone throughout the film.

Methodology

This chapter provides an insight to the research methodology used to answer the research question - the
type of research, a brief description of the secondary data collection process and finally, the used and
limitations of the chosen research method.

The type of research I will be using in this paper will be qualitative, focusing primarily on the virtual
ethnography and the social discourse on Twitter around the #TheJokerMovie hashtag. Dell Hymes, a
linguist in the early 1960s, was one of the very first to understand the importance of discourse analysis.
Discourse analysis is appropriate for my research, as I am reflecting it from a personal point of view.
Having watched the 2019 film adaption of The Joker, I am aware of the large media coverage it has had
on Twitter. Within, I will introduce theorists’ academic work that will either agree or disagree with the
overall discourse surrounding the film.

In addition to focusing on the Twitter discourse, I will also be looking at how the industry has responded
to the promotion of Joker. Due to Joker being a current film, I will base my findings from recent articles
and interviews to help explore my research question.

2
 Findings/analysis

Tweets enable people to reach news quicker than ever before. In this instance, “they can be used not only
to add context and metadata to the posts, but also for promotion and publicity”. Metadata is defined by J.
Greenberg (2003: 1876) as the “structured data about an object that supports functions associated with the
designated object”.

The promotion of Joker was at least in part to encourage sales as after all, a film is predominantly there a
means of making money. However, the public took to using the #TheJokerMovie as promoting their own
views on the film. Upon typing ‘trailer’ and ‘mental health’ into the search bar, these are just some of the
tweets people voiced about the film using the #TheJokerMovie hashtag: I have split them up into three
images to make my findings more coherent and easy to understand.

Image one

The tone signifies that the trailer sets an unrealistic view of how the mentally ill can spiral, restricting the
positive discussion around mental health. I previously mentioned Wernick’s view in relation to
communication being “defined not by what it says, but by what it does” – here, it could be argued that
what the trailer “does” is create an unrealistic representation of mental illness. With this in mind, the
audience could question the intentions of the promotion. Perhaps the aspects which seem to be an
unrealistic representation of mental illness are those that draw in the most sales. For example: the
extensive use of violence. If this is the case, Joker could be seen as a means of making money rather than
a representation of mental illness. Developing this point further, it could be argued that the promotion of
Joker exaggerates some aspects of mental illness in order to grip viewers. In a sense, perhaps the integrity
of the promotion has been sacrificed in order to draw in more sales. In response to this, some may say that
although some of the aspects of mental illness have been exaggerated the discussion around mental health
has still be developed through the promotion of this film. This can be seen as a benefit despite the idea
that the film is just there as a means of making money.

3
 Image two

The general consensus gathered is that it is reflective of how people are in society, like clowns. #BeKind
and #ThursdayThoughts are the main hashtags used within this tweet – this presents the idea that the
trailer and the film itself, continue a discussion about mental health. We are like clowns in the sense that
the choices we make are a large factor of whether we get ridiculed or accepted within society. The user
states not to “allow others to take away your smile” – emphasising how the Joker’s trailer made part of its
audience feel it was centered around mental health. The tweet presents a compassion and sense of
togetherness, showing that the film is more representative of those suffering with mental illness.
However, the film could still be based around sales as the trailer has influenced these “chills” of which
will push that individual’s friends to watch and so on – a constant cycle of promotion sourced from
natural emotions.

Image three

This is the first tweet posted onto the

official @jokermovie account. All we are told about the film is to “put on a happy face” which links to
the general life advice of smiling in situations you may not be happy with. Straight away the audience are
faced with the assumption that the film was going to be about mental health before we had even watched
it. However, there is no mention within the promotional advertisement about mental health which opens
the question: had the producers foreseen that the public would feel empathy for Arthur Fleck’s character,
and proceeded to utilise it as a source of promotion knowing it would encourage discussion? It is
embedded within human nature to feel emotions for a character like Arthur Fleck. Therefore, I do feel that
the film presents a realistic view of mental health as the mentally ill can be lost within society. In saying

4
this, in order for films to be a success there needs to be a core storyline of which the audience will feel a
certain way towards and Arthur’s mental health is one that is current and would always have encouraged
a wave of discussion regardless.

In addition to the Twitter discourse, the film is contrasted with the industry’s response. According to D.
Whately (2019), the film was “criticized for gore and a sympathetic portrait of its homicidal protagonist”.
Police were put on strict watch in certain theatres across the UK. This in itself, encouraged a large
disruption within the promotional release of Joker. It stimulated debate as to whether the film was there to
encourage violence especially with it being rated 15. In this woke culture, it is getting increasingly easier
to offend and with a film like Joker having recently been released, it was no surprise it would be at the
centre stage for controversy. J. Moore (2019) published an article which claimed that the film makes a
“mockery of mental illness”, promoting the idea that it did more harm than good for the representation of
mentally ill people. Some would argue that although Joker is not a universal representation of the
mentally ill, he does represent a portion of society who are marginalised by a lack of support and societal
awareness.

Conclusion

In this research paper, I have discussed that Joker could be a means of making money and that it could
always be a representation of mental illness. I am concluding that whilst Joker is a means of making
money, it is also has been representive of mental health despite that. The neglect of children’s mental
illnesses has proved to be a serious issue in today’s society. Samaritans, an emotional support charity
based in England and Wales, provided statistics relating to suicide as of 2018: “The rate of deaths among
under 25s increased by 23.7%.” Despite the fact this statement was from 2018, it is a clear indication of
how mental illness deeply affects the younger generation – with Joker acting as a representation, it can
only encourage those to check on others and promote the discussion of ways to prevent for the future.
Whether it intended to or not, I argue that Joker is a representation of mental illness within a promotional
culture which may solely focus on sales.

Bibliography

5
Bagozzi, R.P., Gopinath, M. & Nyer (1999), The role of emotions in marketing, Journal of the Academy
of Marketing Science, vol. 27, no. 2, p. 192.

Bowers, L. (2005). The Social Nature of Mental Illness. Taylor & Francis e-library, p.15.

Corrigan, P., 2004. How stigma interferes with mental health care. American psychologist, 59(7), p. 614.

Evans, M. (2019). Joker paints a raw and necessary view of mental illness. Metro News. Available at:
https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/04/forget-violence-need-talk-jokers-raw-necessary-view-mental-illness-
10861363.

Greenberg, J. (2003). Metadata and the World Wide Web. Chapel Hill, North Carolina, U.S.A.: The
University of North Carolina p. 1876.

Heath, R., Brandt, D. and Nairn, A., 2006. Brand relationships: Strengthened by emotion, weakened by
attention. Journal of advertising research.

Londhe, D. (2014). Marketing Mix for Next Generation Marketing pg. 33.7.

Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the promotion
mix. Business horizons, 52(4), p. 361.

Stuart, H. (2006). Media Portrayal of Mental Illness and its Treatments. Kingston, Ontario, Canada:
Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Abramsky Hall, Queen’s University, p.100.

Wernick, A (1991). Promotional Culture: Advertising, Ideology and Symbolic Expression, ch. 8, London:
Sage, p. 184.

Whateley, D. (2019). BRANDS MISSING FROM MARKETING OF 'JOKER'. AdAge.