Batman is a brand strategist

I noticed in my early teens, as a cartoonist, and reading DC comics for inspiration that super heros seem to have a strong grasp of symbolizing behaviour, creating an icon that represented a certain promise or expectation and understood the threat of an evil competing foe - which generally speaking didn’t have such a good icon or symbol representing them.

Then I heard, but didn’t see, a Batman Begins TV commercial the other day where Bale says in perhaps a voiceover, something to the effect of, “If I am just made of flesh then I can be killed, but if I become a symbol then I can last forever”. It sounded a little over the top for your average Account Exec at LeoBurnett or somewhere, but the sentiment is there, and I think he and I could quite easily go into business together.

In other more interesting items, here are some links to some more reputable places I tend to get my information from:

Influx - for at least two years now these fellows have consistently produced and interesting and timely posts about brands.

Purse Lip Square Jaw : Anne Galloway - have you been reading her blog? No, well much of it is interesting and thought-provoking.

Cityofsound - if you don’t yet know of Dan Hill’s blog, then this is a great introduction piece. It is a write up of a library in Swiss Cottage, London that I used to visit frequently as a kid, and its restoration. Not only was it an interesting read but a flashback to a place I had almost forgotten what it looked like inside.

The Pirate Inside - I’m reading it on request by a client. And so far it appears to be one of the worst books I’ve read on Brand. I loath picking it up again to be inundated with new pirate-style terminology, that I can’t easily remember, for all the stuff that already has a label within the subject of brand. I’ll persevere and write a review of it.

2005-06-09 + plink