The advertising and licensing market need to work together to manufacture superhero merchandise which helps get people excited for the movie. I can see the difficulty with worrying about what people will think of a product, especially a movie. Millions of dollars went into the production of Batman as well as the advertising to target not just one audience but multiple. With the use of clothing, music, comics, books, and toys, any superhero can become a multimedia sales campaign. I don’t think products can succeed without being advertised and Meehan demonstrates how Batman was advertised in more than one multimedia outlet. I watch a lot of movies and I probably wouldn’t have watched any of the movies I’ve watched before if they weren’t advertised. Advertisements are what draw people in and get them to watch movies. I’m in shock at how much money is invested in making a movie but I didn’t know those costs included the presumption of a sequel as well as being “the seed money for a line of Bat-media” (55). For some reason, I assumed the money invested was for the production of one movie.
I feel that WCI was very smart in their advertising technique leading up to the movie and even during the movie being played in theatres. By carrying the entire line of Bat-products in the theaters, if people enjoyed the film they could buy merchandise which results in even more money for WCI. However, I don’t like how they targeted young children by placing visuals from the film hidden in Topps’ magazine considering the movie was PG-13. Since children aren’t allowed to watch without their parents, advertisers found a loophole because children can buy movie-related products without their parents’ permission. I just think it’s sneaky and if it’s not appropriate for children to view, children shouldn’t be looking at those images. Selling products to children isn’t wrong but showing images from the movie in children’s magazines is.