The Story Behind Jaws’ Iconic Poster: ‘It Taps Into Fears We All Have’
By: by Kevin E.G. Perry (Empire)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Story Behind Jaws’ Iconic Poster: ‘It Taps Into Fears We All Have’
Here's how that legendary shark and swimmer image for Steven Spielberg's Jaws came to be.
A woman swims through the ocean, blissfully oblivious of the humongous great white shark with a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth rising to the surface below her. The poster for Jaws isn't just a great ad for a movie; it's a timeless depiction of a primal human fear. "Everybody can relate to it," says Josh Manderville, managing art director of poster company Mondo. "You could [have drawn] a Jaws poster in the 12th century and it would be just as impactful. It taps into the fears we all have around our spot on the food chain."
The design started as a book cover. When Peter Benchley's novel was published in 1974, a year before Spielberg adapted it, the hardback featured a black-and-white image by artist Paul Bacon. Some key elements were already in place, including the massive shark head that merely implies the creature's true size. "It looks like a spearhead," says Manderville. "Not seeing a threat and knowing it's there is terrifying."
"This composition puts us in the water. We're seeing what she's not seeing."
For the paperback, illustrator Roger Kastel was brought in to juice up the cover. He went to New York's American Museum of Natural History to photograph great whites, embellishing those fearsome fangs, and had a model from a Good Housekeeping photoshoot balance on a stool to demonstrate the front crawl. Crucially, he also added colour and a horizon line. "The red, white and blue is very intentional, with the film taking place during the Fourth of July," says Manderville. "Spielberg refers to the importance of having the horizon at the top in The Fabelmans , in the meeting with John Ford. This composition puts us in the water. We're seeing what she's not seeing."
Universal loved the cover so much they convinced publishers Bantam Books to let them use it to advertise the film, and it quickly became iconic. Kastel went on to design more classic film posters, including The Empire Strikes Back , but Jaws remains his masterpiece. "It's about taking nature for granted," says Manderville. "The woman is carefree, swimming without clothes, but below her is the reality of humanity facing nature, and our helplessness in the void of the universe."
This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of Empire
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That movie caused a change in my life. After watching that movie I never went out into the ocean over my waist, and then someone told me even that was too deep.
Yep...sharks are hot to trot even with a few inches of water under them...
Surf's up..
If that's so, I'll stick to lakes and rivers. LOL
rivers are not even safe , back in the early 1900s , in the Nj area , a bull shark went up river and into some of the smaller feeder creeks and took people .
Wow. You know there's a movie I watched a while ago called "Shark Lake".
Well that's no fun..
Arvo.. nothing wrong with that poster other than Jaws is to small..
Is there such a thing as a whale shark?
Plankton/ krill eater i believe .
I can't open that. What is it?
Mark sent you a photo of a whale shark.. perfectly harmless and gentle giants of the sea..
They eat plankton and krill as Mark said, not humans...
Thanks, shona.
apologies , buzz , i just grabbed the first pic that came up in searching whale sharks , thanks shona for the assist .
There was no cause for an apology - you tried to be helpful.
Sharks get a bad rap. Peter Benchley was regretful related to his part in that via Jaws.
I’ve dove with many species of sharks in close proximity. Most are more afraid of divers than we were of them. There are exceptions of course. Bulls, Tigers and Oceanic White tips for example are the most unpredictable. Worse even than Great Whites Of course any shark is dangerous if you are in their normal feeding grounds or swimming with an open wound. Also a good idea to not thrash about like a wounded fish.
Nearly 50 years of diving and hundreds of dives with sharks present and I’m still here. Sorry to my fan club here for that.
Maybe I got the wrong idea from the movie Soul Surfer, as well as Jaws.
Evening Sparts...totally agree..you are in their territory and if you happened to get grabbed well that's just plain unfortunate..
Most States have banned sharks being hunted if someone has been taken and even the victim's family do not wish harm on the sharks..
But I think WA still do but that's expected of them seeing they are behind in pretty well everything..and naturally the shark is going to wave it's fin and say "I did it"..
They kill anything in the area and 9 times out of 10 don't catch the shark that took the person.. absolutely stupid in my opinion..
I have no fear of sharks whatsoever, simply because I dont go in the water.
I'm also one of the few people who thinks Jaws was overrated.
You need a bigger bathtub.