Harry Potter is in the biggest film on the planet right now. Despite being the most popular kid in school, he is still getting picked on.
First we have some religious groups going nuts because apparently both the film and the book series are tempting children to start practicing witchcraft. I remember watching a tape of some religious programming in my popular culture class. They had an expert going through the book and pointing out every little detail that had something to do with the occult and Satan.
Even though I am Catholic, I just did not get what the big deal is. I just sat there and I wanted to laugh. Don’t these people have anything better to do with their time? With all of the money that has been wasted on TV programming, home videos, books on the subject, and all other sorts of media, these people could have been out helping others. For example, imagine how many homeless people could have been fed from that money. The other thing that gets me is that these people are selling books and videos about this. To me it just sounds like some way to make some money.
That is nowhere near as fun as those folks at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The same folks who went after Chinese food and movie theater popcorn are now going after the deal struck between Warner Brothers, the company behind the Harry Potter film, and Coca-Cola.
The thing that has the center’s knickers in a bind is the fact that Harry Potter is being used to promote “empty calories” and “liquid candy.” They are asking fans to send an e-mail to J.K. Rowling, the author of the books, in an attempt to have the deal come to a crashing halt.
Reality check. There were probably millions of dollars exchanged with this deal. Does anyone really think that either J.K. Rowling or Warner Brothers is going to part with that cash? I don’t think so.
According to both saveharry.com (the website set up for the cause) and a November 5 report in the Los Angeles Times, the deal states that Harry and his friends cannot be seen drinking the sugary drink on screen. I have seen one of the ads in question and all I saw was an ad for a contest to go to England. No wizards-in-training to be seen anywhere. The only thing remotely close to being a character from the film is Harry’s pet owl, Hedwig. Let me tell you, nothing will make children run to a can of Coca-Cola faster than seeing a white owl flying around on TV.
People, it’s just a book and a movie. What people are forgetting is the fact that this book made millions of children read. That’s right children walked away from their video games and they picked up a book. The film is just an added bonus for Potter fans.
Warner Brothers has been very careful with making sure that this film is not overhyped. According to that same Los Angeles Times report there will be no Happy Meal toys at McDonald’s and no Kid’s Meal toys at Burger King. Warner Brothers even turned down an offer by the New York Stock exchange to have the cast ring the opening bell.
And obviously these protests have been so effective. Look at the box office. It’s clear to see that people have been avoiding this movie as if it was the plague. It only had the biggest opening weekend in history and it is still making money like crazy. Think about it, everything cool in entertainment is evil. Rock music is evil and so is TV. If that is the case then I guess there are lot of us who are in some big trouble with the big man upstairs.
Please, let parents decide what their children should read and watch. More importantly let the children have some kind of fantasy world to call their own. They can worry about evil endorsement deals and issues regarding the occult when they grow up.
