The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones movie billboards...

Oh, very dear. Sometimes bad advertising happens to good movies (although it's yet to be determined whether this is a good film, although the trailers look very promising).

This first installment in the cinematic adaptation of Cassandra Clare's young adult fantasy novels, The Mortal Instruments, is supposed to appeal to a youthful audience, but the ad creative feels like a bad blast from the past and looks more like a cringe-worthy poster for an 80's direct-to-video movie.

Let's face it though, it has the mandatory smattering of bright young things to get teen hearts and hormones racing, so maybe Daily Billboard is being overly critical.

When fifteen-year-old 'Clary Fray' (Lily Collins) witnesses a murder at a New York City nightclub, she discovers a world of hidden demons walking the Earth and the mysterious 'Shadowhunters', a tribe of warriors that protect humanity from these creatures.

She also uncovers secrets that her mother has been keeping from her, about her past as a Shadowhunter and about her daughter's destiny.

With every studio searching for the new Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games franchise to make them millions, this dated movie billboard creative is really not going to make the grade.

Spied along Sunset Boulevard on July 29, plus along Highland Avenue and above Sunset & Vine on August 7, 2013, these drab, underwhelming billboards really could have been much more exciting and intriguing. 

Daily Billboard is afraid to say the design is a bit of an epic fail (plus don't get us started on the film's title which doesn't exactly trip of the tongue).

Let's hope this urban fantasy film itself is not such a disappointment.