Last Friday, Rich Johnston of Bleeding Cool posted and commented on a radio script written by DC Comics, and wasn’t too kind in the process:

This is the approved DC radio ad that retailers can run in their local area, and get 75% of the costs back. Shame it’s so very very dire…

Some of you know that for most of my working life I was an advertising copywriter, and for most of that career I specialised  in radio.

Well, this is an awful ad.

Action Comics #1, June 1938

The ad is part of DC’s initiative to bring in new and lapsed readers through a revamping of their entire line of comics. DC’s “New 52″ consists of the publisher’s entire portfolio of 52 comics shipping in September, all complete with Issue #1 stamped on the cover. Even long running titles Detective Comics and Action Comics, which will reach final issues 881 and 904 respectively, will be getting new numbering. “New 52″ represents a departure from most previous storylines and character continuity in much the same way Casino Royale rebooted the James Bond universe, but Judi Dench got to stick around as M. Some things are different, some things are the same. Kind of.

It’s comics and it’s complicated.

Action Comics #1, September 2011

DC Comics characters have no lack of brand visibility, but most of it is tied up in products developed by the publisher’s parent company, Warner Brothers. While the fortunes of the comics industry have waned in the last fifteen or so years, many of the characters have flourished in movies, video games, cartoons and collectibles. With a Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot heading to theaters and Christopher Nolan wrapping up his monstrously successful Batman series, DC Comics is looking to recapture some of that magic, bringing consumers back to the characters’ roots.

And so we come to the ad… Continue reading →