Firstly a little admission, I'm a little biased here - I used to work for the studio that brought you Hancock and I am a loyal former employee.
That being said Hancock's advertising campaign did not do the film any justice, certainly not the variety to satisfy Hancock's PR guy. The ads came in two shades: 1) Comedy! Will Smith as a Wacky Superhero! 2) Will Smith in serious superhero movie.
Both are misleading and it's unfortunate since I feel the film is quite good. The first thirty minutes are a little choppy in their editorial and way too tight in their frame size. Every other shot was a closeup of someone's face making geography difficult but more importantly with that hand held style they employed, well, it could make a fella a little motion sick. However, those issues aside, the film is just a great story. An epic story of love, sacrifice and beating up the bad the guys (although not as much of that as I think we'd all like) - a great Saturday afternoon popcorn film that will in fact touch you at times with it's surprising humanity and grounded performances.
But how to market such a movie?
I understand the difficulty. You have essentially a character driven super hero film with a character that doesn't have the Marvel or DC banner behind it. I guess my only advice to them would be this -
Sell the movie that was made, not the movie it is supposed to be like. Market it like a movie, not a super hero film. Forget that he wears tights, and treat it like Ali or Men in Black or a Jerry Macquire. Just tell us what it's about, not what you want us to think it's about.
Just the truth and just the facts. Cut and dry. Kind of like Hancock.J ust a good movie.