Last Friday, DC announced that they had made a commercial for the Before Watchmen comic books that would air on television in hopes of promoting the several mini-series DC had lined up for this summer. Their exact claim was “To support the launch of BEFORE WATCHMEN, DC Entertainment has created a dynamic commercial featuring artwork from the highly anticipated comic book prequels”. Now comics don’t too often get televised ads, with some rare exceptions and a few talented marketing maneuvers to sell US titles over seas, so this is always interesting. The question becomes, how does one make a televised commercial for a comic book that doesn’t move or speak or do anything you normally can use to promote, say…a movie or a toy. You could have someone reading the comic and show the enthusiasm on their face. Another approach would be having creators or fans give testimonials or their thoughts on making the title. But given 30-seconds, DC opted to just do a simple voice over with some digital comic effects by Motherland. “The ad uses the imagery as a teaser to promote those books–it’s not a narrative,” according to Lance Sells, Motherland’s founder and creative director. “It’s pretty much the same technique as the New 52 commercial, but with less flash and swooping cameras. This is darker, more toned down, and more noir“. The 30-second ad is scheduled to appear on channels like G4, IFC, and BBC America starting today, with additional push intended to go across social networks and DC’s official website, with an extended one-minute long commercial.

Now at this point I’m sure you’re all dying to see what DC has wrought. Well, it’s not entirely bad, but it’s certainly not what I would have thought to do in promotion of a Watchmen prequel commercial. Check it out below and tell us what you think:

 

 

So, will this 30 seconds of motion comic and bold on-screen words sell a non-comic fan or otherwise undecided Before Watchmen reader on the idea of going to their local comic shop or downloading DC’s digital comic reader so that they can enjoy a copy of Before Watchmen? We’ll see…