Is Your Brand Hairy or Clean?

I’ll admit up front, I am a long time comic fan. I truly love the comic superhero genre and all the movies that have been made by DC and Marvel. With today’s special effects, these comic book characters now can be experienced with all their super human skills fully functional as never before seen on a screen.

But last week’s internet debate about Wonder Woman armpits in the upcoming movie was weird to me. I won’t join that debate here, but it did make me wonder how a brand today can be affected by fans or those who just need to give an opinion whether they use your product or not.

The question this begs one to consider: If you truly know what your brand is and stands for, do you let it get chipped away by forces which really don’t buy it?

This struck me was the situation with Wonder Woman’s arm pits. I didn’t hear anyone complain about Thor, the Hulk, or Wolverine all with full heads of hair, but otherwise look clean shaven. And Wolverine, played by Hugh Jackman, is a hairy guy in real life. As Wolverine has evolved over time in the movie, he has become cleaner shaven in some areas.

Even being a hairy guy myself, I do not really pay much attention to my favorite superheroes grooming habits. And I am fine with how the studios portray who they are, what they do, and how they look.

At least for male superheroes, it seems audiences and non-audiences alike don’t care or don’t complain. I hope the studio ignores the voices of non-customers of Wonder Woman.