A fascinating article today from BrandWeek.com has Paramount Marketer Megan Colligan talking about the summer films, including thoughts about G.I. Joe: The Rise of COBRA and Star Trek.

The article can be found here, and Ms. Colligan’s specific quotes about G.I. Joe are quoted below:

“And then G.I. Joe is on some levels where Transformers was for the first movie. It’s the launch of a brand people are very familiar with, but have certain conceptions about. Young boys to grown men have all played with G.I. Joe has had a lot of iterations as a toy through the years, so the film is a fresh take on all of it. A global fighting force defending the world against evil. The film will be about getting people excited about something that doesn’t have an automatic built-in audience or expectation. We’ll educate people over time.”

I think a lot of G.I. Joe fans would have some strong disagreements about the lack of a “built in audience” but I really have to agree with a lot of what Ms. Colligan is saying.  The brand has morphed and changed so much over time, from the original 12″ figures to the Real American Hero, Extreme, the 25th Anniversary, with Sigma 6, Adventure Team, and many other themes mixed and matched throughout, how can anyone really identify with what G.I. Joe is “supposed” to be?

To many folks it’s the 12″ figure with the scar.  To others it’s Duke and Scarlett fighting against an incompetent COBRA Commander in the Sunbow cartoons.  To other select few it’s the former used-car salesman turned international dictator.   Yes the G.I. Joe brand has a universal appeal and is intertwined with the American conscious, but there have been so many different themes mixed and matched together, that a cohesive G.I. Joe “universe” has been pretty elusive.  After all, there is little that even the devout online community can agree on.

Food for thought.  Thanks to gunslingercbr on HissTank.com for the link.