The art of subtlety

Their disguise for going out in public so people won't know they are mutant turtles is a trench coat and a hat. They even still wear their ninja masks.

If you saw what looked like a giant ninja mask wearing anthropomorphic turtle stuffed into a trench coat, are you going to say anything?
The disguise is just a courtesy to let the average human have plausible deniability.
- Didn't April also put them on the news all the time, calling them turtles? 🤔 I think the humans just didn't care. Why would they? The turtles weren't the ones robbing stores and beating up random people or throwing the city into Dimension X every week. That was, in fact, a human and a giant sentient brain.
- It's New York, they could easily go pretty much anywhere without being clocked as anything weird.
- Probably some sort of punker.
Do you think they underestimate normal humans? It almost feels a little insulting.
- Can you blame them?
- If you watch the show the humans are monstrously stupid. So yeah don’t need to put much effort into their disguises.
This would actually be a pretty dope halloween costume.
- I tried that one year, and it just came off like a creeper.
Not sure if that’s better, worse, or equally mediocre compared to Laszlo Cravensworth turning into Jackie Daytona with a simple toothpick.
- Wait, Jackie Daytona was Laszlo!? I was wondering where he went during that episode. The character just dropped his plot line. It was weird.
Well, duh. How else is anyone supposed to tell them apart? /s

100% was to sell the toys

There is no ethical consumption
- Did... Did I indirectly kill Jamal?
Like every Saturday morning cartoon in existence.
As the target demographic in the 90s, I was happy to beg my parents for them and watch the TV shows. I saw it as a win-win.
- I didn't have a ton of toys as a kid but I loved Ninja Turtles. When I got the sewer lair playset I was pumped. What I really wanted was the Technodrome though. I think that's what it was called. Wonder where all my TMNT dolls ended up?

Well, the Ninja Turtles were originally an unsubtle Daredevil parody...

(Is "parody" the right word? I think they were part parody and part homage.)

That's why it's the "foot" clan. The ninjas in Daredevil were called The Hand.
Edit: and I just remembered, it's Master Splinter because "Stick" was Daredevil's sensei.
- They were also mutated by the same ooze as Daredevil, iirc he fell in it and it blinded him, then dripped from there into the sewer and on Splinter and the Turtles.
"Homage" is the word the creators would have used.
It was also super violent, so I will forever remain surprised that it became a kids thing.
But then Nickelodeon decided to give the guy who made the comic book Johnny the Homicidal Maniac a show and we got Invader Zim, so weirder things have happened.
- Patrick Stump (of Fallout Boy, the band that sang "the ribbon on her wrist says do not open before Christmas") sings the theme song to "Spidey and his Amazing Friends" and "Hot Wheels: Let's race". And both those songs kick ass.
  And I must say that the Panic! and Weezer covers on the Frozen 2 OST also kick ass.

What human would like to fly in a Zeppelin looking like a human body part?

Edit: Ok, makes sense:

They're nuts.

it never occurred to me just how brand-conscious super heroes are in general.

You obviously never saw Mystery Men.
Alfred is really Bruce's PR guy.

That could be anybody.

Hey those toys ain't gonna sell themselves.

https://media1.tenor.com/m/33EzbxFZQnEAAAAd/yogurt-spaceballs.gif

And I fell for it too. I had the turtles sewer boat, but always actually wanted the zeppelin

The art of subtlety meets the reality of capitalism?

Lemmy user try not to bring up capitalism in every thread challenge (LITERALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!!)
- They made some cool toys so why not bring it up?
- But they are right: You can’t sell cool toys with subtlety.
- So, you're not wrong, but... these shows were literally designed to sell the toys. They were basically half-hour commercials.
  G.I. Joe, TMNT, Transformers, X-Men, He-Man, Power Rangers, My Little Pony... they were all built on the same model (hey kids! whine at your parents until they buy our plastic ~~dolls~~ action figures!).

so that's who keeps sending the bloons in bloons td

I bet most people think it is advertising for those candies