Advertising wouldn't have helped much. The game just does not have the appeal to get beyond a small, niche audience. Also, if you add in PAL sales, we're looking at around 150k copies sold to consumers, which leaves 130k on shelves.
If your game is selling for less than normal, has a semi-high budget, sells very few copies to consumers, and sells by far the largest amount in the U.S. (where the dollar is weak) than you would be lucky to break a profit.
I think the Okami port was a way to satisfy the core gaming audience, and then be used as an excuse why Capcom can't develop any more core games for the Wii (except for Resident Evil spinoffs).
Given some of the attitude surrounding the game (both by Capcom and fanboys), I'm somewhat glad that it flopped. I accepted long ago that it will never sell well no matter what.
