The stars shilled this movie on the MTV Awards, to a lesser extent than the GHGRK guys but to a similar level as KFKID. That's the younger demo.
3 of the 4 stars were shilling on WWE Raw and actively promoted throughout the show. That's the younger male action demo (Didn't work for MacGruber either).
The "nostalgia" angle was all well and good as an excuse. But honestly how nostalgic was the promotion other than the brand name?
You associate the original A-Team with: a. Mr. T, b. action/explosions, c. The black GMC van, d. maybe Hannibal and his cigar?
a. not there to promote because he's not in the movie (Rampage is fine, but he's not a draw outside a UFC cage), b. that kind of action wasn't prevalent at the time but now its been there done that, especially in movies, c. I've seen 5 different tv spots for this movie and only saw 1 with the van's exterior and it was on screen for half a second, d. Saw 1 spot with this and all I thought was...damn Liam Neeson has a cheesy hairpiece
No real tie to the original marketed (Is this still set post-Vietnam, cuz the ads didn't really connect to that?) from my POV other than the name. They ran commercials on National TV, they ran commercials on guy oriented programming (Ads on the primetime sports schedule). The commercials themselves showed action so I'm gonna assume no bait and switch. (I was turned off by the dog fight between the tank and the jet myself, but hey that's me)
Do you want like McDonald's type tie-ins? That only happens with established franchises or franchises that are assured of being a hit. The execs obviously thought that wasn't happening with this hence no tie-ins.
The stars did their ET time and the press tour as per usual. Only thing I can think of that they didn't do was an HBO first look.
Only so much you can do for a movie. In the end it has to stand on its own two feet and this hasn't so far.