“It’s giving generational trauma”: “Final Destination” marketing campaign is re-traumatizing everyone

After 14 years, Final Destination is officially returning to movie theaters. And it's fair to say that its marketing methods are already attracting attention.

Across TikTok and X, a logging truck featuring the Final Destination title has been going viral. To the uninitiated, this seems like a pretty random marketing tactic. But for committed fans of the Final Destination franchise, it'll no doubt give them a shiver down their spine.

This is because a logging truck became a main character in 2003's Final Destination 2. Like all Final Destination movies, this sequel was centered around people who were able to "cheat" death. They do this by having premonitions of rather violent (and creative) ways to die. The fact that these people cheated death and had these premonitions led to Death trying to hunt them down, leading to a cat-and-mouse chase.

One such premonition at the beginning of the movie involved cars being battered by logs from a logging truck. It led to a pretty nasty highway pile-up.

In the years since, the traumatizing scene has become infamous. It's also pretty clear that the scene has just as much impact as it did 22 years ago, with a TikTok of the promotional truck amassing 17.1 million views.

In the comments, several TikTok users referred to how the log scene triggered their "generational trauma," with one commenter remarking how this is "generational marketing at its finest."

Another commenter described the ad as "diabolical," noting how they "still don’t drive behind logging trucks to this day."

While a third commenter admitted, "I think I’ve thought of final destination every time I’ve passed a semi truck for 20+ years since it came out."

Elsewhere, a fourth commenter joked, "They're mocking us now."

As if this weren't enough, the team behind Final Destination also made an impact with their billboard advertisements, which appear to feature two signage workers falling to their deaths.

Several netizens remarked that they thought the billboard was real. Combined with the log truck, it's clear that Final Destination is pushing advertising to its limit. Let's just hope it's worth it.

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