Peter Jackson’s King Kong opened on this day 20 years ago. To say that young Scrat (well, younger Scrat) was hyped would be an understatement. And it didn’t disappoint. Kong absolutely blew me away, throwing my ass out of its seat several times (also, I made this weird squealing noise during the action scenes which it’s probably for the best you didn’t hear). I can remember the day I went (December 20th), the theater I was in (auditorium 10), and where I sat (near the front). So yeah, it had an impact on me.

Ultimately, though, despite a deafening amount of monkey buzz surrounding it, Kong was somewhat underwhelming at the box office (people were like “it will beat Titanic,” because that’s just how movies were talked about back then). Make no mistake, it didn’t “flop” or anything like that, but everyone involved underestimated the stamina of The Chronicles of Narnia, which had opened only five days prior. Turns out Aslan would take down King Kong in a fight, in case anyone had been wondering.

Kong had a huge marketing campaign, of course, which included big budget video games, action figures, and everything else you would expect. However a lot of its promotions, sadly, never made it to the states. Burger King did have some Kong-themed commercials for Whoppers in the US, but the toys were UK exclusives. Same goes for a Kellogg’s promotion. So what did good ol’ America have?

Trash bags.

Like…what can I even say about this? What is even happening in this commercial? After the Big K has bought it, and New York needs to be cleaned up, count on giant GLAD bags to safely capture…fallen cars? How was this marketing pitch even made? “Hey, you know what people associate King Kong with? Garbage, apparently!”

Have a great night, y’all!