The Marketing of Star Wars
The Sith want to take over the galaxy “far, far away” in the new Star Wars movie, but here on planet Earth, it’s the Jedi who are invading. There is hardly a household item that you won’t be able to find with a Star Wars tie-in. Since this is the last Star Wars movie in the pipeline, everyone wants a piece of the marketing action. For the first time, writer/director George Lucas is allowing his characters to appear in commercials. Chewbacca the Wookie and robots R2-D2 and C-3PO are selling cell phone ringtones. Yoda shills soda. Even Darth Vader shows up promoting a light-up “saber-spoon” in a box of breakfast cereal. Snack foods have paid for permission to have their own characters appear in Star Wars costumes.

Burger King has two promotions. One is directed at adults, a scratch-off sweepstakes with Star Wars prizes. But the other is directed at children, with commercials pushing the 31 different Star Wars figurines and toys that are being given out with kids’ meals.

Adults can have fun with their favorite Star Wars ring tones, but it’s another thing entirely when this cross promotion is directed at children.

First, we have to remember that children do not have a clear notion about the boundaries between story and advertising. It is wrong to use the affection and trust that kids have for characters like R2-D2, C-3PO, or Yoda as a way to sell consumer product and to sell snacks, junk food, and soda. And there’s definitely something wrong with breaching the boundaries of a story of pure imagination, about honor and heroism, by putting its characters in a context that is completely inconsistent with the roles they play and the ideals they uphold in the movie.

But worst of all is that these commercials and toys are promoting a PG-13 movie -- one that Lucas himself said he wouldn’t take young kids to see -– to children who are far too young to see the movie. Susan Linn, a founder of the Campaign For a Commercial-Free Childhood and the author of "Consuming Kids," says, “That the toys from Star Wars are being marketed as appropriate for preschoolers, and through venues like Burger King Kids Meals and sugar cereals is more evidence of the media industry\'s hypocrisy when it comes to young children and violence. These toys -- and the toy marketing strategy -- are a brilliant way to seduce parents into forgetting what the PG-13 ratings mean -- that the industry itself thinks that the film is unsuitable for children 12 years old and younger and to insure that four year olds are going to be bugging their parents to see it.”