The Depository of Geek: Avenging Marvel's Bad Marketing

Well there you have it.  The final poster for the sure to be summer blockbuster The Avengers and it is....boring.  This is yet another photoshop hack job, where characters are cut and pasted together in the image in a totally unconvincing way.  The entire poster lacks imagination and excitement.  There is nothing about this poster that makes me want to see The Avengers.  In fact the way the poster is laid out, featuring Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark front and center, makes it seem like the film is Iron Man and friends instead of the Avengers.  This poster just is DOA in my opinion. 

What makes things more confusing and disappointing is that the marketing department for this film had access to the entire history of the Avengers in comics, including the comic covers.  Why didn't they decide to model the posters for this film after famous or well known Avengers comic covers.  Like say this one:

I mean just look at that cover.  It has all the elements you need for a poster for this film.  We know Loki is the villain so you want to feature him in some way squaring off against the heroes of the film.  You also want to show the Avengers fighting as a team in a natural way with poses that suggest as much, not photoshop wizardry.  Something similar to the cover to the right would do so. 

Do I think they should use this cover exactly?  No way.  But they could use it for inspiration for their poster.  I mean here is what you could do:  Take Loki and feature him in the poster.  Perhaps place him just out of frame like this cover does.  Then take your main heroes and place them opposite Loki, ready to engage him.  Tie the whole thing together with The Avengers featured prominently near the top of the poster to perhaps mimic a comics cover.  And then you have something that could generate some excitement and interest.

  Here is another cover that I liked quite a bit as well.  It invokes the team aspect of The Avengers and implies them facing some challenge that is just off in the distance.  I think it would have been great if the marketing team did something like this cover as the poster.   Perhaps use it as poster #1.  You know establish the team and then in poster #2 or 3, go with something like what I suggest above. 

I am certain there are many more interesting and famous Avengers comic covers out there.  Some of those would certainly make a good movie poster as well.  But more importantly for this post is just to show that the marketing team behind this film should have embraced the history of The Avengers in comics and used that for their campaign for the film.





The other thing to consider is the collectibility of the poster.  I have read and heard many Avengers fans complain that none of the posters for this film are ones that they would want to hang on their wall.  Now that is especially disappointing as The Avengers is a film many thought would never come to be, especially the fans of the comics.  So for them to not want to proudly put the poster on their wall and declare how excited they are that the film is finally being made really tells you just how bad the marketing has been for this film.  If they were to have released posters for the film that were modeled after the covers of the Avengers, I would bet those fans would be hanging those posters in their rooms.

With a property like The Avengers, the key is to straddle the line between nostalgia and making it accessible to non-fans.  I feel the best way to do that is have one aspect of your marketing all about nostalgia and the other all about accessibility.  So in this case, you have the posters and printed materials be about the nostalgia and history of The Avengers in comic form.  You then use the Trailers and TV Ads to make The Avengers appeal to the casual moviegoer and non comic fan.  To me, that is a plan that is sure to appeal to all.

But the marketing team at Marvel can certainly do better than the posters they have given us to this point.  Come on Marvel!  There is still time to give us a great poster before the film's May 4th release.  Here is the blueprint.  Make it so!  I have a spot cleared on my wall should you decide to do so.