Dick Tracy (1990 Film) - Marketing

Marketing

Disney modeled its marketing campaign after the 1989 success of Batman, which was based on high concept promotion. This included a McDonald's promotional tie-in and a Warren Beatty interview conducted by Barbara Walters on 20/20. "I find the media's obsession with promotion and demographics upsetting," Beatty said. "I find all this anti-cultural." In attempting to market Dick Tracy to young children, Disney added a new Roger Rabbit cartoon short (Roller Coaster Rabbit) and made two specific television advertisements centered on The Kid (Charlie Korsmo). In total, Disney commissioned 28 TV advertisements. Playmates Toys manufactured a line of 14 Dick Tracy figures.

It was Madonna's idea to include the film as part of her Blond Ambition World Tour. Prior to the June 1990 theatrical release, Disney had already featured Dick Tracy in musical theatre stage shows in both Disneyland and the Walt Disney World Resort, using Stephen Sondheim and Danny Elfman's music. The New York Times also wrote in June 1990 of Disney Stores "selling nothing but Tracy-related merchandise." Max Allan Collins lobbied to write the film's novelization long before Disney had even greenlighted Dick Tracy in 1988. "I hated the idea that anyone else would write a Tracy novel," Collins explained. After much conflict with Disney, leading to seven different printings of the novelization, the book was released in May 1990, published by Bantam Books. It sold almost one million copies prior to the film's release. A graphic novel adaptation of the film was also released, written and illustrated by Kyle Baker.

Reruns of The Dick Tracy Show began airing to coincide with the release of the film, but stations in Los Angeles and New York pulled and edited the episodes when Asian and Hispanic groups protested that the characters Joe Jitsu and Go Go Gomez were offensive stereotypes.