Money has been finding its way into the cosplay community for years now, but usually it’s been in the form of sponsorships or paid appearances, not—as Arby’s has just done—directly joining in on the fun.
The company—which specialises in fast food and nerd jokes on Twitter—worked with Volpin Props to build a Nightmare costume from Soulcalibur that stood a very impressive 7’8” (approx 2.33m).
With the goal of showing it off at Anime Expo, the catch being that the outfit was made almost entirely out of Arby’s packaging.
I can already sense the comments in response to this: that this is gross, that cosplay is an amateur hobby and that The Brands have no business here.
To which I’d reply: The Money is already in cosplay, and it will only get worse, so the best you can hope for is when A Brand at least understands enough to work with an established community star.
Comments
6 responses to “The Brands Are Cosplaying Now”
WILL NOTHING STOP THESE EVIL BRANDS?
Well, I’m glad you’re okay with it Luke because I am totally one of the comments that you could sense coming.
Everyone’s cosplaying their hearts out, then a ten thousand dollar coca cola costume walks past, making everyone’s home made efforts look terrible and also advertising coke in the process.
So now cosplay events will really become an homage to advertising. Instead what they are already, love for a culture. That’s a pretty big difference.
I personally embrace this new corporate cosplay culture, and look forward to seeing the blob from Akira composed entirely from Quarter Pounders.
Trump?
The video in this article says it’s a sculpture, doesn’t say anything about costume or cosplay.
We forecast that we can cover 80% of a cos-players costume in advertising before inducing a seizure in passers by.