As a movie buff and amateur filmmaker, I often enjoy watching films just to study their composition and auteurist style, and although a plethora of comments could be said about the change in cinematic style over the last century, a lot could also be said about the evolution of visual marketing for films as well. Specifically, production giants of the early 40s and 50s, such as RKO or MGM, consistently produced promotional material for their films that made ample use of what moviegoers today would call “spoilers.” For instance, one could watch a promotional short for Now Voyager (1942) and find out after half a minute several significant plot details. 
Essentially, after studying the factors that influence the consumer decision process, I have determined that the design of the behavioural component in modern film commercials is not quite what it was in classic film promotions. With promotional shorts, such as Irving Rapper’s Now Voyager, it’s evident that producers relied more on content details, often in the form of text and speech, to lure a person to the theatre. Moving on to the 1960s, there’s a significant switch from text to colour to attract the viewers eye. For example, Stanley Donnen’s Charade (1963).
However, in modern film commercials subtlety is valued over instant spoilers, and an audience can guess the plot and make assumptions rather than hold formed opinions.
The design of similar dramatic trailers makes use of sound and complicated editing to capture attention. A dated but effective example is Clint Eastwood’s Million Dollar Baby (2004). From a marketing perspective, film transformed from a product of standardized promotion to a product promoted with limitless creativity, fuelled by a deeper focus on the cognitive attitude component demonstrated, in my opinion, through the widening consumer preference for subtlety.
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