American Consumerism: Star Wars Episode VII: Rise Of The Merchandise

Star Wars is a unique cultural phenomenon and literally millions of articles and billions of words can be written about the making of the films, the films themselves (indeed the 6 feature films are in fact only a tiny part of what makes Star Wars), their impact, the universe of the films and even the expanded Star Wars universe in the forms of the many comics, books, video games and even music albums (oh yes we'll get to those...). It rips-off references hundreds of works before it and has since been referenced in thousands of works since (even the merchandising aspect has been referenced). However in this article I shall be looking at only a small part; the merchandising (or as fans tend to call it 'the merch'). Star Wars is in many ways like "The Force" from the Star Wars universe; it surrounds and binds all living things, everybody has been touched by it, nothing can escape it, and certainly not it's merchandising.

It should be noted that selling merchandise based off a film was nothing new when Star Wars was first released, in fact one of the first movie to have a large marketing campaign covering many arbitrary objects was Planet of The Apes (the good one, not the naff one from Tim Burton) with a variety of items such as action figures, lunchboxes and even colouring books. However Star Wars is what really lifted things off, and this was thanks to two things: Firstly Star Wars was a box office smash ($307,263,857 in the U.S. alone), which of course gave it a large fanbase (indeed very few people were trampled in a rush to buy say, Battlefield Earth action figures) which enabled it to produce more merchandise because it gave evidence of the market available. Secondly because George Lucas had (and still has) all the rights on Star Wars merchandise (as opposed to the studio), which of course entitles him to a none-too-unreasonable amount in royalties, so he has a pretty good incentive to continue to produce it.

The genius of Star Wars merchandise was that just about anyone could participate in it, much like McDonald's and theri franchise model, all one needed was the licence. A small American toy company by the name of Kenner was able to acquire the rights to make Star Wars action figures in 1976 (which would be distributed in the UK by Palitoy), after Mego turned the offer down due to the fact that they felt that Star Wars would not be a success; a decision worthy of Decca turning down the Beatles. That being said Kenner didn't have high hopes for the film and only started selling the figures in stores in early 1978, from there on they would make 3 3/4" Star Wars figures right up until the mid 80s. These would sell along with play-sets and some excellent commercials aimed at children and would subsequently popularise the 3 3/4" action figure. There was of course many other products; such as but certainly not limited to: Comics (by Marvel, which apparently saved the comic book industry), Radio Dramas, Books (a truly insane amount by various publishers), Some excellent cartoon series (By Nelvana, N.B. The intro to Droids "Trouble Again" was written and performed by Stewart Copeland of The Police and many episodes of Ewoks were written by a fresh Paul Dini, who would later go on to write for Batman comics and the animated series), Lego (Lego's first and most successful licence), Cereal (By Kellogs, and yes, they just merged Cheerios together) Various Video Games (By various publishers and quality), toiletries, Undergarments (By Union Underware Inc.) and yes, even Christmas Albums (Featuring the first ever début of Jon Bonjovi i.e. Bon Jovi, no really). Suffice to say most of these made money.

The fact that one could make money by simply plastering a popular brands name on virtually any object was not invented by Star Wars but it certainly perfected and popularised it. Indeed as seen by the increasingly derivative list of objects above Star Wars was able to move above being a simple Hollywood film and became the phenomenon that it is today, and as a result many movies, cartoons (especially cartoons), books, and even non-media companies have imitated Lucasfilm (George Lucas' own company that grants licences) by putting their brand name on a product which they normally would never make (like a BMW Zippo Lighter). Or Toy/Clothing/Media-Production Companies acquiring the rights of a brand name and subsequently making toys/models/underwear/media for a significant mark-up in price and profit (Hasbro is currently one of the largest toy companies in the world and makes toys for Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and even Star Wars). It is thanks to Star Wars that the market is so full of licensed media objects as trivial as toiletries and clothing, and movies based of toylines (coming soon: Liam Neelson in Battleships, yes, really); because they proved that fans of various media franchises and works and even non-media companies (like car manufacturers, they also make Porshe Pipes) will buy products due to the power of the brand, and fans of a franchise will go to see a movie/Tv show based on that franchise. The reason why people buy into this is varied but the most important reasons certainly for media and Star Wars is because: A, they allowed us to live out our fantasies and favourite scenes from the Movie/Book/Game and create our own 'fan-fiction' at home, and B, because it is 'cool' and is a status symbol amongst peers (this is certainly true amongst collectors of rare action figures).

Of course what many people ask is this, Is merchandising a good or bad thing? Some people say that merchandising is 'selling-out' and reduces the artists integrity, whilst others say merchandising is created by the wants of the fan-base. The answer is that it depends. Charles Schulz was famously quoted as saying there is nothing wrong with using characters in marketing, so long as the quality of one's work stays refined. Whilst Star Wars producer Gary Kurtz said: “The toy business began to drive the [Lucasfilm] empire. It’s a shame. They make three times as much on toys as they do on films. It’s natural to make decisions that protect the toy business, but that’s not the best thing for making quality films.” Ultimately in my opinion it depends on the product or media. Some films, cartoons, and games (such as the abysmal Action 52 and the various Transformer cartoons) were clearly set out to sell toys and make money, however even that being said Transformers and other shows designed 'to sell toys' turn out to be very good and in many ways take on a life of their own. Plus whilst I do not crave Star Wars bodywash I don't have to buy it and I don't really feel that it cheapens the integrity of the work of Directors like George Lucas or Richard Marquand. Not to mention there is nothing quite as 'cool' whacking someone with a 'lightsaber'.