Mony- Jenkins, after thought.

“It may start with any media channel, but a successful product will flow across media until it becomes pervasive within the culture at large- comics into computer games, television shows into film, and so forth.” – Henry Jenkins

I consume, and there for, I buy into this marketing chain of events. Help- I love Sex and the City. I own all five seasons, the books, and the board game. I try to think back to when my themed consumerism started…The 1980’s, of course. I find myself blaming Pizza Hut and McDonalds for marketing movie toys in their meals. I loved the “Back to the Future 2” futuristic sunglasses you could get at Pizza Hut. My parents ate pizza for weeks in order for me to “collect all six”. This is marketing genius and I literally ate it up I knew when a movie was released; I could get some sort of souvenir at the local fast-food joint. “Kids, get into the car, we are going to Mikey D’s for the new ‘Star Wars’ (insert your own collection here) collectable cups.” Brilliant! Now we have a culture of obese children that that look like the Beanie Babies that they love from their McDonald’s Happy Meals.

But hey, “Media consumers want to become media producers”. Can this be applied to the whole Disney “Princess” series? Now children can have a “princess” themed birthday party and play the role of any Disney princess they choose, just by putting on a different “princess” paper hat. I saw a woman at Costco spend 50 bucks on this marketed package. Can’t she just dress the birthday girl in her old prom dress, instead of a paper hat? That is way more Princess in my book, but hey, I am the little girl that owned all the Pizza Hut sunglasses.