Posted by Vee | May 17, 2009, 14:38 (EST) | 6 Comments
Category: Books, Misc, TV Series

If you were a teenager reading YM, Teen, Sassy, or Seventeen in 1991-1992, your chances of seeing this official HarperCollins ad for The Vampire Diaries book series was high:

This ad is notable for a few reasons (other than being ugly as all hell): it’s the only print ad we can recall from the series’ original release and because it makes no sense whatsoever. From the weird placement of the fangs, to Stefan being the most popular boy at Robert E. Lee High (uh, not quite, what with the whole suspected of murder thing – and we ain’t talkin’ about those innocent bunnies), to the hilarious thought of Stefan and Damon sharing a locker (we like to imagine Damon leaving Stefan “You Suck” post-it notes) – yeah, it’s a bundle of head-scratching. Needless to say, the newest generation of Vampire Diaries fans should be extra-grateful (okay, maybe not that grateful) that advertising for the genre is arguably more visually sophisticated than it used to be. (Many thanks to Elek Pendragon for the scan and the walk down memory lane.)

This makes us that much more curious about what the marketing campaign for the upcoming TV series will be like. (Yes, we’re assuming it’s a done deal now.) Regardless of what you think about shows like Gossip Girl, Smallville, and Supernatural, the network has a knack for memorable campaigns and imagery (and being unafraid to court controversy). Will they be pushing the central triangle in print ads? Putting the brothers front and center? Evoking Alloy’s half-face motif from the books? (And while we’re being total geeks for detail – will there be an opening title sequence? A theme song? A simple title intro like Supernatural? Is the title card in this photo of Nina Dobrev on set the final one? These things keep us up at night, you guys. Actually – just me. Yeah.)

Four months between an official greenlight on May 21st and the start of the new TV season – that’s both not far away and an eternity to keep momentum going. More importantly, it’s imperative that The Vampire Diaries has a presence at Comic Con International in San Diego this July. Production will be happening in earnest then (possibly in Georgia, as we mentioned last weekend), but considering this will be the largest concentration of the show’s potential fanbase (other than the internet, where many of those fans are active), it would be a huge, huge mistake not to be there – even if it’s just the three leads and a producer or two. Fingers crossed?

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