The full trailer/commercial can be found here, but is currently unembeddable. Even this 30 second preview is an unofficial rip, which seems strange for, you know, a commercial. Maybe the LATimes laid down the ground rules about how shareable the videos would be? Maybe DC still doesn’t completely understand internet marketing? The world may never know.
So yes, your motion comics effects set to a soundtrack of alt rock is very compelling and doesn’t border on the silly. Although I’ll admit that the failings of this as an advertisement are not wholly DC’s fault: there’s a reason why books don’t advertise on television very often. But there are some things that should be addressed.
1. The only reason I find these ads compelling is because I am already intimately familiar with these characters. For example, seeing Nightwing beating up some dudes excites me, because I’ve missed Nightwing. The number of people who know who Nightwing is who don’t already know about the reboot is minuscule. There needed to be something more in here than punching and posing. The general public already knows that superheroes do that, and if they wanted to see more of superheroes doing that they would read comics. You need to show them what is unique and interesting about this relaunch in particular to give them a reason to buy in now.
2. Push that URL harder! Seriously, some voiceover would not go amiss here, talking about how you’ll be able to read these comics online without going to a special store to buy them. This is another big hurdle for many of the people I know who are only “sort of” into comics. They’re intimidated by comic shops (particularly my female friends who are worried that they will be perceived as newbs based on their gender alone). Let the people for whom the shop experience is a hurdle know that they can get their books a different way!
3. Haha, no you’re never going to convince me that Superman is scary, haha, he’s still Clark, haha no.
4. Credit where credit’s due: it’s great to see Wonder Woman, Batwoman, Supergirl, Batgirl, Voodoo, featured and kicking ass.
(via DC Women Kicking Ass.)
