It’ll be really fun over the next few weeks to read about all the promotional stunts the movie studios are planning for Comic-Con. Sure, I’ll be freaking out about whatever the Lost producers have to say, but the real eye candy is when Marvel debuts some new character, or Pixar shows 10 minutes of an upcoming movie. Studios have finally figured out that Comic-Con is a ripe opportunity to speak directly to the fans, and more and more in recent years they’ve pulled out all the stops to get the word out and gets the fans excited.
Warner Bros. is getting in on the game too, but they’re completely ignoring the democratic, direct-to-the-people angle and focusing, as always, on the media elite. The stunt they’re pulling is really cool—to promote this fall’s City of Ember, they’ll recreate the city in the film in a two-car private train. Props and costumes from the film will be available, and in a separate car they’ll screen 15 minutes of footage from the movie.
Of course, the thousands of visitors to Comic-Con can’t all fit inside the car, so Warner Bros. is limiting the journey to 25 selected members of the press. That’s right. For an event that’s widely covered by media from all over the world, they’re inviting only 25 people to witness a publicity stunt that’s surely costing them dearly. Sure, these are all people who are widely read and probably influential, but do they really want to throw such an elaborate party and have so few people come?
The Variety article reporting this has all kinds of details about what else the promotion will do, which is basically like waving a piece of candy in front of someone and saying “Nanny nanny boo boo, you can’t have any!” Honestly, at one of the best-attended, fan-centric conferences of the year, Warner Bros. is going to give a big middle finger to all the fans who might also like a look at the cool toys from their cool movie? If Marvel could show off Iron Man’s suit for the plebes, Warner Bros. could at least get in the democratic spirit of Comic-Con and do something for the fans. Instead, they’re going the usual route—talking sweet to the press, and assuming audiences will just immediately love anything they offer.
I don’t know enough about City of Ember to be excited about it yet, but this whole promotion has left a bad taste in my mouth. Hopefully Warner Bros. will also offer something at Comic-Con that’s directly available for the fans. Otherwise, it seems, they’re totally missing the point of a huge marketing opportunity.
