Doing some holiday shopping for Christmas, I visited several stores including Wal-Mart and Toys R Us that had HUGE supplies of Star Wars figures and toys from this past May. Some fast food outlets like Taco Bell are practically giving away the overstocked posters and is wasn't too long ago that we had the '3 for 1 super discount' cup toppers at the Tricon chains as well. Stores either seriously overestimated the demand for these products, or there was just too much.

Before we go too far, let me give you this. I like the toys. I bought the books. I've got the theatrical one-sheet on my left as I type. I even got soap with Yoda in the middle as a gift and a Qui-Gon with glow-in-the-dark lightsaber for my birthday on the 28th. But how much is too much?

The fact is, everyone went wild, jumping the gun on the hype and mystery of a franchise long considered abandoned until the strategic product revitilization of the early 90's (man, this sounds like one of my Bachelor Degree business papers!). And when the announcement was made that Lucas was working on the prequels, everyone jumped on board. Everyone wanted the Star Wars: Episode I logo and their products. Taco Bell/KFC/Pizza Hut went nuts and it backfired, causing huge overstocks above the demand.

Pepsi spent alot of money and put together a huge campaign. But the problem with the Pepsi promotions was that there was simply too much! It was literally everywhere. Combine that with the Tricon promos, an overabundance of toys and assorted items and it was overkill.

So will Episode II share the same marketing approach? Will there be "Star Wars everything everywhere" approach all over again? To some degree yes, but also remember that this second in the installment is the love story, and will be marketed as such. As the series grows darker to the climax in Episode III, expect the films to cater to the new generation of fans, as well as people like myself that grew up cutting our teeth on Star Wars toys and brushing those same teeth on C-3PO toothpaste. In my best estimation, we'll see a slightly different approach, more towards the teenage market segment with the high repeat viewings as well as the attraction of the romantic story.

Oh, there will still be plenty of toys, and probably another massive tie-in with Taco Bell, Pepsi and KFC, but chances are the days of mass marketing are over.

Joshua Griffin
January 3rd, 2000
TFN Staff

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2002

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2001

12/12/01 - Chris Knight - Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
12/07/01 - Jeff Yankey - All I Want for Christmas
11/17/01 - Guest Editorial - Ritual and Romance of Episode II
10/04/01 - Guest Editorial - Why Episode I is Brilliant
10/02/01 - Guest Editorial - Episode I is Star Wars
09/30/01 - Guest Editorial - Why I Loved Episode I
09/25/01 - Joshua Griffin - Episode II: Make It or Break It Time
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02/13/01 - Chris Knight - "The Force" of Love: A Valentine's Day Editorial
01/17/01 - Chris Knight - Star Wars Could Continue... As Television Anthology
01/11/01 - Guest Editorial - A Review of A New Hope After the Prequels
01/07/01 - Guest Editorial - No - We Want the DVDs Now!
01/04/01 - Chris Knight - New Digital Disciple Says "Lets Wait On Star Wars DVDs"

2000

12/21/00 - Joshua Griffin - Is George Lucas Really a Genius?
11/18/00 - Joshua Griffin - To Spoil or Not to Spoil
11/06/00 - Joshua Griffin - The Power of the Election
11/01/00 - Chris Knight - Why Isn't There A Star Wars Postage Stamp?
08/17/00 - Jason McCabe Calacanis - The SW2 Fan Trailer (guest editorial)
07/14/00 - Joshua Griffin/Scott Chitwood - TFN's Spoiler Policy
06/20/00 - Chris Knight - Star Wars and the Saga of Life
05/13/00 - TFN Staff - TheForce.net Wish List
04/08/00 - Special Guest Editorial by Skybaugh - Worth the Wait
03/30/00 - Joshua Griffin - What Star Wars Has Won
03/19/00 - Joshua Griffin - The Next Denver Celebration
03/14/00 - Joshua Griffin - Fair Weather Fans
03/07/00 - Joshua Griffin - Predicting the Academy Award Winners
02/22/00 - Joshua Griffin - Who should profit from Star Wars?
02/16/00 - Joshua Griffin - Episode I and the Academy
01/27/00 - TFN Staff - Flaming TFN over DVD
01/25/00 - Chris Knight - Motivations of the Sith
01/20/00 - TFN Staff - Leonardo DiCaprio as Anakin?
01/10/00 - Joshua Griffin - World-Wide Star Wars
01/03/00 - Joshua Griffin - Mass Merchandising Menace

1999

12/13/99 - Joshua Griffin - Questioning Star Wars
11/22/99 - Joshua Griffin - Trusting Internet Rumors
11/11/99 - Paul Davidson - Rise of the Empire: China and TPM
10/28/99 - Scott Chitwood - Signs There Probably Won't Be a Sequel Trilogy
10/18/99 - Joshua Griffin - Why not Episode I DVD?
10/15/99 - Joshua Griffin - What Makes SW Fans Special
10/01/99 - Joshua Griffin - The PG Rating of TPM
09/07/99 - Scott Chitwood and Paul Ens - Comic and Book Wishlist
08/18/99 - TF.N Team - Thumbs Up / Thumbs Down on Episode I Everything
07/11/99 - Joshua Griffin - Parody Site isn't that funny
07/10/99 - Brian Linder - The Jar Jar Factor
06/08/99 - Joshua Griffin & Chris Knight - Why is Jar Jar in Episode I?
05/06/99 - Darin Smith - Return of the Child
03/09/99 - Scott Chitwood and Paul Ens - A Chat with LFL
02/07/99 - Amy Pronovost - Convention Romances, Can they Work?
01/23/99 - Scott Chitwood - What's up with Prowse?
01/01/99 - Scott Chitwood - Uncle George and Episode 1

1998

11/23/98 - Scott Chitwood - What Lucasfilm is doing right
11/05/98 - Scott Chitwood - Prequel Spoilers
09/28/98 - David Coates - First thoughts on the the Episode 1 Title
06/19/98 - Scott Chitwood - How Godzilla affected Episode I
04/09/98 - Scott Chitwood - The Art of the Space Battle
04/09/98 - Scott Chitwood - DIVX SUX
02/26/98 - Scott Chitwood - X-WING TV Series Should Fly
02/09/98 - Scott Chitwood - Xerox Sites
02/03/98 - Scott Chitwood - Canon Issue, Part 2
01/07/98 - Terrence Daniels - Canon = Personal Preference

1997

12/17/97 - Darin Smith - Everything I need to know...
11/15/97 - Chris Kivlehan - Six Episodes or Nine Episodes?
11/07/97 - Scott Chitwood - How do you solve a problem like Ewan?
11/03/97 - Scott Chitwood - How we get our Prequel 'Spy' info
10/22/97 - Paul Davidson - Trek vs. Wars