The Marketing Genius of Marty Supreme

The word “genius” gets thrown around a lot, often in reference to things that are “pretty smart” or “mildly interesting.” Not here through — not us. In this new series, we’re taking it upon ourselves to highlight works of true marketing genius: people, campaigns, ideas, works of art that have been singularly effective in 1) making people aware of their existence; and 2) making them care. Some are contemporaries, others are from eras past. All of them have been original and brilliant.

It is Christmas, and more importantly, the release date of the ping pong movie Marty Supreme. I will not overstate things: the marketing campaign leading up to the release of the ping pong movie Marty Supreme was one of the great feats of advertising of the modern age. The Marlboro man, Coca-Cola’s Christmas bears, Nike’s swoosh, sliced bread, whatever Apple did — these are now secondary achievements in the world of marketing.

On the off-chance you are unfamiliar with the marketing campaign for Marty Supreme, a ping pong movie, I will tell you roughly what happened as I experienced it. A few months ago, I was vaguely aware that there was a ping pong movie called Marty Supreme being made when one of my acquaintances sent me an Instagram reel from Timothée Chalamet (movie star, 20 million followers) titled “video93884728.mp4.” It was 18 minutes.

It was a recording of a marketing Zoom call where Chalamet pitched exquisitely unhinged ideas to promote his new ping pong movie, Marty Supreme: a “hardcore” orange a la Barbie’s pink which he presented as a single low-res square; a crayon drawing of a blimp that would traverse the globe; his character, Marty Mauser, on a Wheaties box. True to form, the marketing team nodded along, hedging diplomatically whenever an idea stretched the boundaries of feasibility (painting the Statue of Liberty and the Taj Mahal orange) or public safety (raining down millions of ping pong balls from the sky). As someone who has sat in on a number of these calls, where important people carry on grandiosely and at length about things that they do not know cannot be done, let me just say A+ stuff here.

This where we get into the genius of it, and it requires zooming out to the cruising altitude of a giant orange blimp.

1. Chalamet has sort of pioneered a new way to be an actor in Hollywood. He is earnestly unashamed in his pursuit of greatness. This is a departure from the genteel and gracious actors who applaud their rivals when they are beaten out for an Oscar. Chalamet talks about his performances like an athlete who is giving 110%; Mamba mentality and all that. His screen share in that Zoom meeting revealed a desktop photo of himself accepting his SAG award, an acceptance speech where he talked about wanting to become one of the greats. His desktop folders were labelled “Great Idea 1, 2, etc.” He is single-minded: “Marty Supreme, Christmas Day” repeated like 10,000 free throws, “never give up” platitudes etched into the fabric of his being. Whose being, exactly, it’s hard to say. Chalamet is a Russian nesting doll: the true Chalamet nestled inside the A24 Zoom call Chalamet nestled inside Chalamet as Marty Mauser, chasing greatness. In the false self, there is some trace of the true self.
2. The marketing team actually did it. Not the Taj Mahal or the Statue of Liberty, but they did get a fat orange blimp and flew that thing over Hollywood. They filled box trucks with hundreds of thousands of ping pong balls and drove them around New York City. They got some of our generation’s greats like Tom Brady and Frank Ocean, Bill Nye and Kid Cudi, Misty Copeland and Michael Phelps photographed in limited edition Marty Supreme windbreakers. GQ called the jackets “the definitive garment of 2025.” They sold out at a pop-up event in just a few hours. They are now hitting the re-sale market for over $600. They got Marty Mauser on a Wheaties box.
3. He is also doing it, and by “it” I mean upwards of 128 pre-screening appearances. He’s not just doing the talk show circuit or other events, he is doing CCXP Brazil, a stadium-style event usually featuring Marvel characters. He and Kylie Jenner came to the New York premier of the movie, both of them wearing orange, and him wearing a magnificent leather pong paddle holster. He is escorted on his press tour by a posse of ping pong-headed henchmen. There were rumors that he was moonlighting as a British rapper EsDeeKid, which he playfully entertained until he was featured, rapping, on a new EsDeeKid track. What this has to do with the movie, I’m not sure. Probably nothing. Point is, Chalamet has made himself ubiquitous — the matcha of movie stars. And when you are a missionary with Marty Supreme as your gospel, everywhere is where you need to be. As I was writing this, a new video showed up on Chalamet’s feed: he is standing on top of the Las Vegas Sphere, and a drone is zooming out to reveal the world’s largest ping pong ball. Marty Supreme. Christmas Day.

You might think that these pieces will only click together properly if the movie is good and people go see it, right? Wrong. You can’t make a bunch of media appearances claiming this is your greatest performance in a string of great performances and then have the egg-headed critics issue a correction or, worse, have nobody show up. Right? Wrong again! I’m not saying the movie is bad (which by all indications it is not) or that it doesn’t matter that it flops (which by all indications it will not)*. I’m saying the commitment to it even in the face of a potential flop is itself part of the spirit of this project. Marty Supreme is directed by Josh Safdie, who along with his brother Benny, also directed Good Time and Uncut Gems. These are films known for their anxiety-inducing energy, propelled by the main character’s chaotic confidence as they scam, thieve, and exploit their way through various misadventures. They believe in themselves to a near-psychotic degree even and especially when no-one else does. Imagine the freedom.

The Marty Supreme marketing campaign is a controlled spill of that same energy into the real world. In this case, they did not create a cultural phenomenon through careful design — it’s more like they unleashed it. I’ve seen the marketing minds talk about Chalamet’s “brand”, the signature use of colour, the strategic elements of this campaign, all in order to impart some lessons to other marketing professionals. Boring! Not going to work! “Hardcore orange” was born in that Zoom meeting after gestating with Chalamet’s expert team of graphic designers**; the idea for the blimp began with a crayon drawing and a dream. They are marketing gimmicks, but they are marketing gimmicks with a story and ambition unique to their project.

It helps, of course, that Chalamet really, really seems to believe in this thing, or is at least exceptionally committed to the bit. Apart from a handful of late-night appearances from Borat, I have yet to see method acting extended to the press junket. But I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Marty Supreme really is chasing greatness. I think he’s already caught it.

• *After a limited opening at just six theatres, it’s already made $875,000. It’s setting new records for A24 with 92 sold out early screenings. The marketing is working because they aren’t letting it not work.
• **Five minutes in Microsoft paint