The ad for DC’s ‘Blue Beetle’ movie on the Museum of Art’s Rocky steps bugs me out

When I saw a photograph of the poster for Warner Bros. Pictures and DC Comics’ upcoming Blue Beetle movie plastered across the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art this week, my first thought was: “This has to be photoshopped.”

Spoilers: It was not.

As I slowly came to the realization that one of Philly’s most renowned landmarks had been rented out like a billboard on I-95 and covered with a giant image of a dude in a mechanical bug suit, I knew I had to put my Lois Lane blazer on.

Who approved this monstrosity? What was the cost? Where’s the money going? When will this thing be removed? And why is this happening now?

Conrad Benner, who documents Philly’s public art scene for his blog, StreetsDept.com, and has written about outdoor advertising posing as art, had an even more visceral reaction.

“Gross. It’s so corporate and gross,” he said. “Can’t there be one place in this society where we’re not forced to engage with advertisements?”

The museum stairs, often referred to as the Rocky steps, and the museum itself are owned by the city. The stairs are maintained by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Andrew Alter, a Parks and Rec spokesperson, said in an email that the city was approached by Allied Global Marketing, the Philly-based firm handling local marketing for the film, about installing the “temporary activation” (a.k.a. the ad).

The company was approved for a “special event” permit at a rate of $4,000 a day, Alter said. The temporary vinyl ad, which covers 72 steps, was installed Monday and will be removed Sunday, for a total cost of $28,000.

Alter said the proceeds “can be reinvested” into maintaining the east terrace area of the museum, which includes the steps. When I asked if they will be, he said funds from similar “activations” have “traditionally been used in maintaining the surrounding area.”

So whether the funds will be used to power wash the steps, which could do with a good cleaning, or repurpose the fountains alongside them, which haven’t worked for decades, remains to be seen. But if the city approved this sheerly for money, it doesn’t seem like a great deal.

“If this is going to be the city’s answer to fundraising, I think it’s a pretty lazy and uninspired answer,” Benner said. “That’s not a lot of money, but it’s a huge return on the studio’s investment.”

Almost as curious as the fact that the city allowed a major motion picture studio to advertise on the museum’s stairs is the fact that Blue Beetle, the latest superhero flick in the DC Universe franchise, has absolutely nothing to do with Philadelphia. It’s not set here, it wasn’t filmed here, and yet, we’re the only city to get one of these ads.

Jesse Cute, vice president of field marketing for Allied Global, said the company wanted to bring excitement for the film to the Philly region in a big, nontraditional way.

“Someone asked me what was my plan B. There was no plan B. It was the Philadelphia Museum of Art, we knew that was the place to be,” he said. “You not only get Philadelphians running there, you get a lot of tourists running those steps, as well.”

Speaking of tourists, can you imagine going to the steps to get your picture taken, only to be photo bombed by machine-bug-man hybrid? As for locals, of 108 people who responded to an informal poll on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), 18 liked it, 23 were confused/unenthused by it, and 67 were against it, using words like “ugly,” “tacky,” and “depressing” to describe it.

Museum spokesperson Maggie Fairs said the museum didn’t receive compensation for the advertisement, but doesn’t oppose it.

“The Philadelphia Museum of Art is happy to have a strong working relationship with the city, and we think the use of these stairs, which are such a recognizable landmark in the city, for promotional purposes is great,” Fairs said via email. “We look forward to opportunities to use these stairs to promote Philadelphia’s emerging artists.”

That’s exactly what the iconic steps should be used for, Benner said, promoting the work of local artists as the museum did in June with Philly-based Lindsay Bedford’s The Petal Procession, an installation of pink paper petals along the stairs.

“Is our city just a big billboard for big studio and out-of-town advertisers or can we use these steps to promote our own uniqueness and our own artists?” he said.

Alter said the Eagles have done activations at the museum and steps, and held a drone show there during their playoff run this year. But that feels like a whole different ballgame, one more about city pride than just profit.

It’s not lost on me that I’m criticizing that a movie poster was plastered on steps made famous in a movie; steps that then became nicknamed after that movie. But at least Rocky was set and filmed here. It’s no Monet or Van Gogh, but at least it’s got heart — and us in it.

I’m not sure what Blue Beetle has. I’ve heard little about the film, which, according to IMDB, is about an alien scarab that chooses a human to be its symbiotic host. But it’s interesting this marketing ploy is happening now — during the ongoing writers and actors strike when union members aren’t participating in publicity tours — instead of when DC’s Shazam, which was set in Philly, was released in 2019.

“It’s like an anti-union statement on top of it just being a gross ad, too,” Benner said.

Like the Jawn Morgan billboards that litter our city, photos of which continue to spread across social media fueled by our ire, could this ad be more about the shock value than the actual ad itself? When you strike at a part of our city that’s so intrinsic to our identity, it becomes something that people who deeply love Philly, as Benner and I do, can’t ignore.

That being said, I can’t help but wonder if this column is exactly what the studio wants, if I haven’t been Lex Luthor-ed into writing this piece. But if I don’t write it, what will come next? Ads for Twisted Tea or Viagra?

“It’s hard to say whether we’ll see more or fewer activations like these, but all special event and festival permit applications undergo a review process,” Alter said.

Benner also worries about what this could portend.

“What’s the next thing? Are we just going to project ads on the Liberty Bell? Will Independence Hall be draped in something?” he said. “This is a silly, silly mistake I hope they make once. It’s not worth selling our public space to get pennies from these corporate folks who just want to use us.”