The truth is, vigilantes are seductive. The
bad they do can feel so satisfyingly good.
bad they do can feel so satisfyingly good.
With two notoriously brutal anti-heroes like Marvel's Daredevil and The Punisher, we knew fans had a desire to see them on bloody warpaths of vengeance. But marketing the shows like that was expected.
Instead we asked why. Why do they do it? Why do they step outside of the moral confines of society to become our avenging avatars?
Exploring that led us to a much richer, more emotional, and more complex place. Were we gonna show some badass beatdowns and cool character reveals? Yep.
But we also positioned the campaigns as dark mirrors to our own world.
Whether it's our primal desire to: Let the Devil Out.
Or an ingrained mistrust of the ever-expanding, manipulative conspiracies that demand:
The Truth Must Be Taken.
With these two global campaigns, which each included bespoke A/V, social video, key art & more, we worked around the expected superhero tropes in favor of something a bit more mature and nuanced – both darker and more graphical.
Plus showing characters descending to their savage core was just plain comic-book fun. (We couldn't resist making a special edition comic book for Punisher.)
This approach let us attract new fans who appreciated the challenging themes and resonated with the characters’ emotional struggles, while still allowing us to retain their violent antihero legacies for longtime devotees.
