[![enter image description here][1]][1]

As my profile says, I am "[SF&F's self-styled expert on *The Thing*][2]" (as of December 2015, I am [one answer away][3] from getting the site's first ever [tag:The-thing-1982] tag badge).  It is my favorite science fiction and/or horror film, so my avatar is the "red smoke" version of the poster for [*The Thing*][4], featuring the tagline preferred by director John Carpenter and producer Stuart Cohen:

>Man is the Warmest Place to Hide.

Carpenter and Cohen [despised][5] both the tagline and the poster design the studio opted to use: the "glow face" image and the phrase: 

>The Ultimate in Alien Terror.

[![enter image description here][6]][6]

They felt that the "glow face" design was confusing and had nothing to do with the movie, and they criticized the tagline for giving too much away and simply reeking of B-Movie cliche.   

>The advertising campaign had changed overnight - the somber, predominately black and white imagery (which we had been consulted on) replaced overnight with the now familiar "glow face" (which we hadn't), the tag line " Man Is The Warmest Place To Hide" dumped for "The Ultimate In Alien Terror", which I abhorred ("Man" was written by a publicist named Stephen Frankfort, who also came up with what I thought was the best tag line ever for ALIEN - "In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream".  He was hired early on and his company also created the earliest teaser with the ice block. The "Alien Terror" tagline was concocted by a studio suddenly desperate to display the word "Alien" above the title). Both, I thought, represented a last minute demotion to "B" film status, something we had fought for years, and evidence that Universal was effectively throwing in the towel in trying to reach a broader, more mainstream audience.   
- Producer Stuart Cohen on his blog, [*The Original Fan*][5]

I agree with Cohen and Carpenter regarding the taglines, but I like the "red smoke" poster slightly more than the black and white one they wanted to use:

[![enter image description here][7]][7]

I think the "red smoke" version conveys a sense of the movie's plot without giving anything away.  It also scores points for featuring the superior "Man is the Warmest Place to Hide" tagline; I only wish it didn't *also* include the schlocky "Ultimate in Alien Terror" tagline.


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/THIxgl.jpg
  [2]: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/users/44025/wad-cheber?tab=profile
  [3]: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/search?q=user:44025%20[the-thing-1982]
  [4]: http://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/the-thing-1982
  [5]: http://theoriginalfan.blogspot.com/2011/12/final-days.html
  [6]: https://i.sstatic.net/68BTU.jpg
  [7]: https://i.sstatic.net/QXt4z.jpg