SAN DIEGO — If you're going to Comic-Con or just walking downtown, you may have noticed there's a lot more advertising this year in the form of building wraps on high-rises.
“I think it's nice. It's very welcoming,” said one couple from Cincinnati, Ohio. “I love the art. I love the animation. Very welcoming. It can make you fan without realizing you were a fan before.”
Take a look around the Gaslamp Quarter near the San Diego Convention Center and you'll see wall-to-wall building wraps. Advertising for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is on apartment buildings. The sitcom Abbott Elementary is plastered across the side of Petco Park. Sponge Bob Square Pants is on the Hard Rock Hotel.
Lori Brabant is CEO of KAP Media, the company responsible for most of the Comic-Con 2024 building wrap advertising.
“In 2012, we did our first wall wrap, which was at the Marriott Marquis, which is where Star Trek is this year. That runs 36,000 square feet. Jump to 2024 and we have 25 placements. So, it's grown exponentially,” said Brabant.
The wrap advertising reportedly can cost more than $100,000 per building, though Brabant would not talk about costs; or the fact that unpermitted building wraps are technically illegal in the City of San Diego.
The CEO told CBS 8 the city is fully aware of her company's building wrap advertising. She had no further comment.
The city emailed CBS 8 the following statement:
“If a Civil Penalty Notice and Order is issued, fines can range up to $10,000 per violation per day. The City’s Building and Land Use Enforcement Division (BLUE) has enforced Comic-Con signage using Administrative Citations (AC) since 2019. ACs range from a warning to $1000 a day. BLUE will enforce unpermitted signage, including building wraps, per the municipal code.”
Legal or not, most Comic-Con convention goers seem to like the larger-than-life building wraps.
“It's very unique to San Diego, Gaslamp and Comic-Con. And, it's only a temporary thing,” said one attendee.
“I like them. I loved Sponge Bob when I was a kid. So, it's nice to see the giant, beaming-yellow face of my favorite cartoon character looking over me as I walk the streets,” said another attendee from Texas.
Don't expect the building wraps to last for long. Comic-Con runs through Sunday.
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