I ran across AutoToons a while back, and dropped them in my “blog about later” file. Welcome to later.
Basically, there are a number of different strips (auto dealer, real estate, etc…) that businesses can license for their advertising. The strip changes with each ad, and takes advantage of what I always tell advertising clients – nobody can ignore a cartoon!
I wouldn’t say these are funny comics per se, but that’s not really their function. They are, however, well drawn, and nicely written for their end use.
Dunno how business is, but kudos for a great idea!
Technorati Tags: advertising, cartooning, cartoonists, cartoons, comic strips
Yeah, that is a clever idea. Neat website, too.
There is a real estate agent in my mother's city that uses a comic strip in their weekly newspaper ad. It looks similar to Autotoons. The ads ALWAYS catch my eye. After I read the strip, I think, "Hmm, no joke, not much plot, but still way more interesting than a typical ad."
So, it works to get readers' eyeballs on the ad.
I'm sure there's some business here for gag cartoonists like myself, but so often you have to be so bland in advertising… I dunno if I wanna go there…
Hey, I liked the Alex Toth reference (I guess it's an Alex Toth reference) for the bookstore name. But, yeah, so far as funny cartoons for ads: they're just not so funny on the whole.
Cartoon Art ads have a long tradition, and for a time, there was a company that specialized in it. Link to today's Mike Lynch Cartoons blog, in which I completely take Mark's original blog topic and riff on it:
http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2007/01/cartoon-art-advertising.html