Well they tired to hype it as a joke and that didn't work. I noted when it came out Video they took a much more serious approach to the advertisements, which didn't work either.
I still swear I saw a SNL skit with Tim Meadows in it that was the exact same plot of Snakes on a Plane like back in the late 80s early 90s. Don't know what Episode and since Meadows was in hundreds of those shows it'd take forever to watch them all.
The Living Daylights-a-Ha.