I never thought I would see the day when I had seen too much Harry Potter. Although I am a true devotee, as most of you are, to The-Boy-Who-Lived and his escapades, somehow, the grimy reality of muggle publicity sets in. Nowadays, almost anything can be bought, rented, or stolen (I hope you don't choose this route) that somehow correlates to Harry Potter.
I seem to fancy myself as old-fashioned, as are the minority of the general population. And as being such, the idea of gimmicks, ads, publicity stunts are as old as the book gets. Yet, they somehow work, do they not?
In the beginning of the Harry Potter muggle-time sagas, the only thing that was Harry Potter was the books. In fact, it wasn't until the later books until most of the hype and excitement built up. Then muggles, being how we muggles are, looked for ways to profit from other people's likes. As we have done before in countless numbers, we started our bombardment of slogans, advertisements, gimmicks, toys, etc. In the beginning, there were most likely two camps of people. One of those camps comprised of people who read the books and loved the books for what they were, and I am still proud to be considered of that group. The other group however, were people who "jumped on the bandwagon." (This is parallel with one of the subplot lines in OoTP, when many Hogwarts students become supporters of a Quidditch team, the Tornados only for the sole reason of its heightened popularity. If J.K. Rowling did this intentionally or not, I am not to judge, but it is some food for thought.) The "old" group seems to be likened to the group of people looking down on the new arrivals of Harry Potter fans. Yet, without the new people's support, the old group's survival would have been hard.
The main reason for the new arrivals of the brand new Harry Potter noveau riche is the introduction of other attractions besides reading. When GoF was released, and many newspapers and websites were touting the event of many children reading for pleasure, the truth behind it wasn't that of a similar nature. Most were induced by the catchy new toys or the many new videogames (which I haven't played yet, but it is on my "To Do" list). Yet despite this, the fact that the children read was important, and will never be forgotten. All these low motivated reasons to join the Harry Potter bandwagon almost shocked the previously mentioned "old" group. Yet, you may be asking how this all relates to the main point that needs to be proved that why has Harry Potter gone overboard. The truth is, it is both groups fault, and thus no one is to blame, except for the corrupted human nature that is greed.
This kind of mass-advertisements is certainly not new. However, the reason why it is more prominent here, than in other situations is that there is a limit for one's mind as to how much one can handle about one topic. I now perceive that most of our limits are being reached. For example, although Warner Bros. has maintained a strict copyright for the whole series, and the reasons are quite obvious as is the validity of Professor Trelawney (except for those two times). Yet, this is also so that they may profit more in selling the name and trademarks to other companies, and receiving royalties. This has gone from everything from candies to clothes to toys to even dinnerware. This ad creep is now more firm than ever. For the average fan, this may be less of an annoyance than others, but nevertheless, it is impossible to avoid.
So, in this age of electronics and instant communications, the scar of Harry Potter is now painted on every idea imaginable. So now you, the reader, must decide whether the advertising has gone too far, or it is another idea of Dumbledore to make humans aware of the magical world (an idea that has never completely gone away from me). |
User reviews
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| Fluffy |
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| 2006.04.13 |
I enjoyed reading your editorial, well done. I do not agree completely thou...
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| Jenny |
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| 2006.01.22 |
I consider myself to be amongst the 'old group' too. And it really does ann...
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| HandofGlory546 |
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| 2005.12.17 |
I totally agree. Did you know they have HP toothpaste now?!? The new Dumbl...
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| sirius black rox |
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| 2005.08.02 |
i kind of agree with what your saying but i also see faults in it. if you ...
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| kahlilah |
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| 2005.07.26 |
i personally have been a fan since the books first came out when i was eigh...
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| Fantasy Lvr |
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| 2005.07.03 |
Harry Potter has been over-commercialized, yes, but many more HP fans have ...
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| Katie |
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| 2005.06.27 |
I totally agree with you. I bought the first HP book at Wal-Mart, didn't kn...
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| Megan |
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| 2005.04.25 |
I think there are a lot more things over-commertialized then Harry Potter. ...
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| Sarai |
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| 2005.02.12 |
Unfortunately, this is very true. I myself didn't discover Harry Potter unt...
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| Jason |
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| 2005.01.26 |
Cynical but true. Movies are rarely just about making a film these days. ...
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