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For movie studios and media companies, Comic-Con International: San DIego is a major marketing event - not just for the panels, or the activations, but also for the copious amounts of advertising outside the convention. The most visible of those are vinyl wraps on buildings near the convention advertising major releases; this year it's Star Trek, Abbott Elementary, Interview with a Vampire, and more. (There is a giant Spongebob facing the San Diego Convention Center as I write these words.) While it's become a staple of Comic-Con International: San Diego in recent years, you may not know that it's also largely illegal.

The city of San Diego has a very straight-forward ban on building wraps in the city limits that applies to all buildings - with the lone exception being for buildings owned by the Port of San Diego, and even then, only during Comic-Con weekend. The port of San Diego doesn't own the major hotel buildings here such as the Hilton Bayfront, the Omni, and the Marriott Marquis, however.

According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, the advertisers and building owners shirk off the legality because the revenue they get from the wraps is lower than the fines and penalties from breaking this city law.

"The city can fine hotels and businesses up to $10,000 a day, but such high sanctions are rare," writes journalist David Garrick. "It is more common for the city to give out warnings or a $1,000-per-day citation."

According to the paper, neighborhood groups have complained in recent years about how the building wraps are a blight on the city of San Diego, but the studios, the building owners, and the advertising group which has cornered the market on it like what they're seeing - and earning.

"These are pieces of art," says KAP Media Group founder Lori Brabant, whose company is the primary marketing group responsible for the San Diego building wraps. "It is very exciting for us to see it come to life."

According to Brabant, they started in 2012 with one wrap, but have grown to 18 in 2022, 23 in 2023, and now 25 this year. She estimates they cost over $100,000 each.

Get a fuller San Diego Comic-Con experience with a full rundown of our SDCC 2024 stories, as well as all the big SDCC 2024 news, how to make the most out of San Diego Comic-Con, and the real burning question: how much does it actually cost to go to SDCC?