Captain America and Advertisement

Merrill Lynch advertisement
Merrill Lynch advertisement from the Wall Street Journal

Above is an ad that appeared in the Wall Street Journal recently. From the left the Black Panther, Nick Fury, Ant Man, Captain America, Hawkeye and Dr. Strange. I have not kept tabs, but it seems to me that Marvel has been allowing their superheroes to appear in a lot of commercials and ads in the last couple of years. Again I cannot provide any statistics, but it seems that generally Captain America takes the prominent place in these ads. This is a little surprising since Spiderman should be more well know among the public due the success of the movies. I would think even someone like Wolverine would be better known to the public. Then again when I talk to non-comic people about Joe Simon I always mention him as one of Captain America’s creators. They always seem to know Cap. But perhaps it is not recognition that these ads are looking for. Perhaps it is trust and with Cap’s costume incorporating the American flag he probably represents trust more then any other superhero, including Superman. One other thing I have noticed is that although I see a lot of Cap in ads, I never see him alone. I wonder why that could be?