The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2024
Coca-Cola x Marvel: The Heroes lets every hero keep its own medium's look
In one brand film, Marvel heroes journey into a comic book store — each keeping the style of its original t-shirt, comic, poster or statue.
Coca-Cola · Marvel
What it had to solve
In April 2024 Coca-Cola and Marvel launched limited-edition packaging featuring more than 30 heroes and villains across Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Zero Sugar, supported by a cinematic commercial. The creative problem was visual: the same characters look very different on a vintage comic page, a T-shirt, a poster and a collectible statue, and the film had to bring those versions together without homogenising them.
How it works
Coca-Cola and Marvel launched 'Coca-Cola x Marvel: The Heroes' in April 2024: limited-edition bottles and cans carrying more than 30 heroes and villains, from Ant-Man to Captain America, supported by a cinematic commercial. The film's creative problem was visual — the same characters look different on a vintage comic page, a T-shirt, a poster and a collectible statue, and the launch had to bring all those versions together.
Electric Theatre Collective's answer was not to unify the characters but to preserve where each one came from. Using a broad range of animation and mixed-media techniques, the film lets every hero keep the look of its original medium as they journey into a comic book store — so a comic-book hero, a t-shirt print, a poster and a collectible statue all share one screen, each in its own colours, texture and style.
The film anchored a packaging programme that rotated onto shelves in more than 50 countries through summer 2024, with QR codes unlocking AR experiences for the characters. The D&AD awards archive preserves the work among animation and visual-effects entries, crediting Electric Theatre Collective; the page records no view or sales figures.
Why it lands
- Fans meet Marvel heroes through many objects — a worn comic, a favourite t-shirt, a statue — so preserving each medium's look honours how people actually hold the characters.
- Instead of hiding the inconsistency of 30+ art styles, the film makes the plurality the art direction, so the collage itself is the event.
- The comic-book-store setting gives every style a natural home, because a store is where comics, posters, shirts and statues already sit side by side.
- Visible mixed techniques also signal craft — audiences can see print texture, animation and VFX coexisting — which suits a launch meant to feel like a whole universe.
What it did
The film anchored a limited-edition packaging programme that began rotating onto shelves in more than 50 countries in April 2024 and ran through the summer, with scannable codes unlocking an AR experience per character. The D&AD archive preserves the film among animation and visual-effects entries, crediting Electric Theatre Collective; the page records no view counts.
What you can take
When licensed worlds collide, the styles characters carry from different media are part of the story: keeping each object's look preserves the nostalgia, and the visible mix becomes the spectacle.
Since then
The packaging programme ran through the summer of 2024, with characters also unlockable as AR digital collectibles through QR codes on pack. In the following awards season the film circulated through animation and visual-effects juries, and the D&AD archive keeps it with Electric Theatre Collective credited as entrant company. The page records no audience numbers, so the case rests on the concept: a shared universe assembled from each character's original visual medium.
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