I first seen Alien around 1986-87. I found a pic of this poster in a TV guide and instandly wanted to watch that Movie. I asked my Father to record it for me on VHS and i needed arond 5000 trys to watch the Movie to its End because i was so frightend as a Kid. Thanks to Mr. Gips for his iconic Art. Without it i might have never been a Alien Fan. (Sorry for my English)
Always wondered who came up with that tagline. Art really does live on, and this is one of the best posters ever. You have to wonder, did they actually get a sketch or something of the egg, but see it upside down? The shape of the crack if you flip it does resemble one half of the cross-like flaps on the actual alien egg.
Something similar happened with the starship Reliant seen in Star Trek 2, where the producer saw the design upside down and said "brilliant!".
In the pre-internet days of newspaper movie listings and vhs rental new release shelves, poster art used to be extremely important to luring audiences.
Somehow I don't think a lacklustre poster killed a 2 and a half hour sequel to a film almost nobody asked for a sequel to, that didn't do well in the first place