Heroes stars are seemingly abandoning the grass roots to make room for NBC's corporate sponsored tour. As has been widely reported, practically the entire cast of leads from last season will be appearing at locations world wide to promote not only
Heroes, but tour sponsor and ever-present product placement Nissan.
Heroes, of course, made a dominant appearance on Comic Con – not like the franchise could afford not to – but it now appears that subsequent ‘con' appearances are beginning to drop like flies.
They'll be walking red carpets for big screen premieres in Japan, but they won't be mingling with the fan folk of Canada. Heroes stars have pulled themselves from the annual Fan Expo in Canada, and are absent from some of the more popular US grass roots cons, such as Dragon Con.
Zachary Quinto and
Hayden Panettiere of
Heroes were originally scheduled to appear at the Fan Expo in Canada but have pulled out. The only representative from
Heroes will be Malcom McDowell who did a stint as the nefarious healer Lindermann.
Don't worry though, Canada, Quinto, co-stars
James Kyson Lee, Noah Grey-Cabey, and Dania Ramirez won't be pulling out of the Toronto date for the Nissan sponsored world tour, where they will be signing copies of the Heroes DVD set.
As
Heroes second season approaches, criticism has begun to bubble up from television critics that the focus on brand and sponsorship has been alienating to fans of the story. While
Heroes established itself as a hit, the empire of secondary business almost entirely relies on continued success in its time slot when the series returns.
The natural comparison in brand growth is
Lost.
Lost had similar, albeit superior, first season success but took a much slower approach to brand expansion.
Lost's success, as a brand, however is bolstered by an ever present organic connection with its fan community.
Ditching the chance to mingle with fans on their own turf due to the rigors of a corporate sponsored red carpet tour may not be a helpful way for Heroes to maintain its fan friendly persona.
- Jon Lachonis, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: Canada.com
(Image Courtesy of NBC)
