A Star Is Born Merch: Real-Life Tees for Fictional Musical Artists

By Joseph Myers

In the 10 days since its U.S. release, “A Star Is Born” has gotten a ton of praise, owing to critics’ and moviegoers’ esteem for the characters portrayed by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. It's generated copious tears, thanks to its tale of love and loss. And it's led to considerable calls for merchandise to commemorate what will surely be an Academy Award contender. The film has already proven a box office smash courtesy of the kudos and the chemistry exhibited by the stars, and should soon add “product mover” to its list of successes, as T-shirts depicting the evolution of Cooper’s Jackson Maine and Gaga’s Ally are available for fans to order.

Though one might choose to gripe over the four- to five-week waiting period for the apparel items, that same person might quickly say that good things come to those who wait, with that utterance interestingly serving as a theme for Gaga’s character. As a nightclub singer-songwriter whose career ends up receiving a push from the more renowned male tunesmith, Ally hits the big time, too, with the two tops pertaining to her reflecting the shift from fledgling would-be chart conqueror to established songstress.

Those $35 offerings dovetail with a pair of equally priced nods to Maine, with one showing him wielding his trusty guitar and the other advertising a 2008 concert. However, this quartet of "A Star is Born" garments that Billboard magazine covered has company in propping up the runaway revenue generator, as Gaga took to Twitter on Friday to tout two more T-shirts, with all six available through the movie’s merchandise website and serving as a two-element purchase, as end-users can also nab a digital version of the soundtrack.

Jackson Maine and Ally merch 💫 https://t.co/lWt3Ok3EKq pic.twitter.com/aobh7bnEvX

— Lady Gaga (@ladygaga) October 7, 2018

Given the film’s musical bent, we consider it a stroke of marketing genius by Warner Bros. Pictures to promote the buzz-worthy picture via apparel options that make apparent the clout that Maine constantly receives—yet struggles to fathom—and the fame that Ally comes to earn through her polished tunes. Judging by reviews, the box office haul and social media posts, we feel confident in saying that when the waiting period blows by, end-users will still see “A Star Is Born” as a fresh addition to their lives and will directly don the shirts as signs of their fandom and indirectly sport them as evidence of the power of in-movie merchandise concepts.

We definitely do not mind romantic movies here at Promo Marketing, but we can admit that we are geeks at heart, so seeing these tops that chart how Maine and Ally grow throughout the narrative has us thinking that the “Star Wars” universe, which next year will release the ninth installment in the main film franchise, could make a fortune over similar items that show how the characters advance in maturity. We would love to see shirts, for example, that track how instrumental Rey and Finn have become to fending off the First Order. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, you can follow Warner Bros. Pictures’ lead here, right?