Are the days of red-band trailers over?

A lot of people, me included, loved the red-band GET HIM TO THE GREEK trailer. There were boobs, cursing, dildos…what more could you want from a movie trailer? But there are some people who weren’t fans at all. People who want to make sure that some of you don’t watch red-band trailers like that anymore.

Let’s be honest here: while you’ll see our age-gate if you try to watch the GET HIM TO THE GREEK trailer on our site, there are myriad of ways to still watch the clip if your underage. First, and probably easiest, lie about your age on MySpace, the site that premiered the trailer. It’s this ease with which underage kids can see R-rated material that has some people worried.

One such group is the FCC, which recently issued a study on red-band trailers and how easy it is for kids to simply lie or click a button to circumvent the intended age-gate. Whlie this could be nothing more than political grandstanding, increasing pressure could force studios – who released 76 restricted trailers in 2009 – to curb the trend.

The publicity though may largely be drummed up by a company named Aristotle. They believe they have software that studios can use to more stringently enforce the age-gates on these red-band trailers. But as some people have pointed out, what’s stopping a kid from entering in their parents’ information into the computer? Or an older brother or sister?

Let’s face it: red-band trailers are great marketing tools. Some films, like KICK-ASS, thrive on it. They’re not going anywhere, anytime soon (studios are even trying to persuade Apple’s trailer page to drop their ban on red-band trailers), but with increasing pressure, it may be harder and harder to view them.