May 13, 2005
Darth Vader Lords over Burger King
(Filed under: Commercials)
As if yesterday's Star Wars commercials weren't enough, how about a giant, inflatable Darth Vader towering over your local Burger King? The same company that made the inflatable SpongeBob SquarePants balloons (many of which were stolen) is making the 9-foot inflatable Darth Vaders.
It's all part of the endless Revenge of the Sith merchandising, worth an estimated $20 billion in revenue. It's also the first time Star Wars characters have appeared outside their fictional film environment, interacting with people in commercials, according to Lucasfilm. In addition to the commercials, there are Legos, the dreaded Darth Tader Mr. Potato Head (and worse toys--can you say "Wrestling Buddy Vader"?), a Time cover story, an Organic Trade Association spoof, even a Darth Vader blog (which, interestingly enough, is posting journal entries from the climax of Episode VI: Return of the Jedi just as Revenge of the Sith opens). Some of the more enterprising are even trying to sell "May the Force Be With You" T-shirts (OK, I admit that's me).
Star Wars is actually credited with making movie merchandising the profitable arena it is today. For the holiday season in 1977 toy-maker Kenner sold 600,000 empty IOU action-figure boxes. In 1978 they'd go on to sell 42,322,500 action figures (Entertainment Weekly, subscription required).
And with two TV shows in the works, it's not likely this is the end of the Star Wars marketing juggernaut.
Posted by kevin at May 13, 2005 8:30 AM
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Comments
Hey, those Darth Vader balloons are attracting attention. The same night our Vader was put up, he was brought back down, by some thiefs. Gone, he was.
Posted by: Jeremiah at May 15, 2005 12:56 PM
Just two days ago I saw this Burger King ad, which had no dialog what so ever.... it was just a thirty second clip of Darth Vader breathing and staring at "The King" (BK's creepy new "mascot").
They both just stood in front of each other and it was hilarious!! I have been looking everywhere for it to show my friends. It's not on the Official Star Wars site like the Yoda/Pepsi one. If you find some info or a link that would be great. It was really quite funny.
Posted by: Frad at May 18, 2005 1:07 PM
I saw the commercial you're talking about and I've been watching for it online. The Star Wars site seemed to stop doing promotional updates on May 11, which is too bad.
In addition to the commercial you describe, I've heard about another one where Darth Vader tries to talk someone out of their burger. If I find either commercial online I'll link to them.
Posted by: kevin at May 18, 2005 1:30 PM
