• by Fern Siegel , September 20, 2024

The Penguin is back in Gotham City.

And The New York Times, alongside HBO/Max, is touting his return.

Max tapped T Brand Studio, the content studio within New York Times Advertising, to handle "The Penguin" ad campaign. The series debuted on HBO/Max Sept. 19. The New York Times was wrapped in The Gotham Gazette tabloid, the campaign's OOH push to spotlight Oz's criminality.

The character is part of the "Batman" saga. "The Penguin” stars Colin Farrell as Oswald "Oz" Cobb, determined to control Gotham City, modeled after New York.

The execution is a first for the T Brand Studio.

"The team at Max wanted to reach beyond a purely comic-book audience. We wanted to make New Yorkers look twice by crafting something that would be distributed all around the city — and the country at large — that showcased the unique direction of this show: more crime/intrigue, less fantastical superhero action. The team was also inspired to create real fan service, something that diehard fans might treasure," Adam Okrasinski, executive director, creative tech & design, T Brand Studio, told Out to Launch.

"We were inspired by a single cutaway moment from "The Batman," the recent film that created the aesthetic universe for this new show. Though the show takes place in or around current day, this version of Gotham seems to draw a lot of inspiration from New York of decades past. Our team instantly recognized how special it would be to bring this fictional paper to life. We got excited about leaning into the full aesthetic treatment, limited color palette, editorial cartoons, courtroom sketches and classifieds," added Okrasinski.