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The Morning Line: Today's Comics, "Sponsored" by Target.
Times are tight in comics land, and new revenue streams must be tapped. What's your visual evidence, you say? My cheeky reply: Direct your gaze, if you will, to today's "Mother Goose and Grimm."
Will the "Arrow" shirt company want to advertise here next? (KFS)
Enlarge ComicThere in Mike Peters Land is a reference -- if not a painful pun -- to the brand that be Target. Yes, if feature films and TV shows can engage in such commercial shenanigans for fun and profit, then comic strips can ride that gravy train, too.
Nonsense! you scold. Well, I urge you to be on the lookout elsewhere.
A few brushstrokes short of a million-dollar deal? (KFS)
Enlarge ComicCheck out Dagwood's pajamas. Why, they're just a few inkstrokes from being Target-brand PJ's. (Which would be a reassuring touch, actually, for "non-elitist" Dagwood.) At this rate, branding might become it's own "Where's Waldo?" game on the funnypages.
Either that or brands just make for big fat and comically fun, well, targets. (Wal-Mart, anyone?) What punchline-friendly brands should Mike Peters and his cartooning cohorts fix their focus on next?...
By
Michael Cavna
| September 25, 2008; 6:00 AM ET
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The Morning Line
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Posted by: f2 | September 25, 2008 8:09 AM | Report abuse
Indeed, f2, "Starbucks" punning is an oldie but a goodie. In the '90s, my strip called the chain "Fivebucks" and "Zits" called it "Fourbucks"; by now, I'd bet some cartoonist has risen the pun's price tag to $6. And for my money, no cartoon has topped "The Simpsons" for continually inspired punning signage.
--Cavna
Posted by: M.C. | September 25, 2008 11:41 AM | Report abuse
For the last, oh, year or so the fast-moving plot line of Mary Worth has centered on her neighbor Toby's suffering from identity theft that was caused when she responded to a Phishing e-mail from a thief posing as (apparently) the only store from which she has ever charged anything, "enormoushop.com".
Posted by: Seismic-2 | September 25, 2008 1:00 PM | Report abuse
It won't be long before it's like Idiocracy..."Secretary of State, sponsored by Carl's Jr."
Posted by: Mike | September 26, 2008 7:23 AM | Report abuse
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You're kinda stretching, aren't you? I mean, I like the premise but the Target reference was there solely for a very awkward pun. I doubt anyone has ever called archery practice "targeting".
I like when the strips make up their own names based on real stores. Some of them are pretty creative and on target (so to speak), like Adam's "Bigbucks" coffee chain. I recall Candorville doing a couple of really good store names, but I haven't kickstarted that part of my brain yet.