The Over-Merchandising of Pikachu
or
How to Be More Obnoxiously Money Hungry Than Walt Disney Studios(without really trying)
| Commercialism Run Amuck |
"Once Upon A Time (so the story goes) there was only one Evil Empire and its name was Disney. It was Evil because it over-merchandised its films, insisting on putting a Mickey Mouse Watch on the wrists of every schoolchild and replacing copies of Alice in Wonderland and Mary Poppins with the Disney Versions. And there was crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth. And the True Animation Fans cried unto the Lord for deliverance"
That's the story I grew up with. It's a story that predates Pokemon. When I first heard it, I was deep within my first serious animation phase, when I would try my best to watch any and all independent shorts on my local public TV station. People would experiment with different techniques - collage, Xeroxed imagery, puppetry, radical editing techniques - all in the name of artistry. This was also the period in my life when I loved the Fleischer shorts, also shown frequently on public TV in my area. I didn't care for the Disney era between Uncle Walt's death and the rise of the Eisner era, and neither did many other people.
I heard the story again in the early 1990s, when I became interested in anime. Again, this predates Pokemon. I was more sophisticated, and didn't buy it the second time around. I'd seen plenty of photographs of Betty Boop and Popeye merchandise and dusted off plenty of Looney Tunes toys as I cleaned out my closet, so I knew that Disney wasn't the only animation studio trying to sell souvenirs as well as cartoons. I'd also lived through the Smurfs and He-Man, two of the more blatant examples of merchandising from the 1980s, a decade that also brought the Care Bears and My Little Pony into our living rooms. Disney may have been the Evil Empire, but there were plenty of pretenders to the throne.
In the fall of 1999, the Keys to the Kingdom have finally been passed on, and we have finally found an animation studio that outdoes Disney in pure exploitative power. We have seen the (near) future of commercialism, and its name is Pokemon.
"And there was crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth."
I'm not surprised that another animation studio has finally snatched that obnoxious, gold-plated crown from the crass brow of the Disney Studio and claimed it as its own, clutching it to its breast. After all, last year, Disney was overtaken in artistic quality by two very different films (Prince of Egypt and Mononoke Hime), neither of which could have been made within Disney's current formula for a feature film. It was only a matter of time before someone successfully assaulted Disney in the arena that Disney dominated most. Pokemon has increased the stakes in an increasingly mean-spirited and manipulative market in which the goals are to force youngsters to buy as much disposable junk as possible for as high a price allowed by law before said youngsters outgrow said junk.
Pokemon is the first Japanese-animated TV series to not only come to America but to succeed beyond anyone's predictions. If Pokemon managed to supply first-run episodes in syndication for more that one season, that would be triumph enough. No other recent anime series - not Sailor Moon, not Teknoman, not even Dragonball Z - can boast that claim. If Pokemon were able to seize a decent time slot within competitive markets, that would be another coup. If Pokemon were able to generate high ratings outside of an increasingly inbred fanboy base, I would have thought this were evidence of a miracle. Indeed, Pokemon's success has been extreme.
So why the complaints? The success has been too extreme. If Pokemon had merely accomplished the above goals, a greater good for animation might be served. Children would realize that there are other forms of animation besides supposedly hip updates of old Warners Brothers second-stringers. They would stop watching programs on the Kids WB and Fox which consist mainly of in-jokes to satisfy the minutiae crazed hard core animation buffs that account for perhaps 5% of the total audience. They would, instead, watch programs that are written for children but do not talk down to them. They would ask for shows in which the lead characters are not abrasive psychos with "attitude" but somewhat ordinary children who struggle with basic dilemmas and who try to follow their conscience. This is the stuff not only of classic Carl Barks-created Uncle Scrooge comics but also the various Archie titles, and the very best early Disney animated features.
Pokemon went beyond this, once Nintendo started to aggressively merchandise the program in the States. It is, perhaps, a moot issue whether Nintendo initiated the merchandising frenzy or was simply reaping its benefits. After all, grey-market imports and outright bootlegs were flooding Asian stores in larger cities. Nintendo decided to flex its video-game muscle and release Pokemon merchandise specifically for the States. American children would no longer have to buy imported Pokemon toys whose instructions were in various Asian languages. More importantly, Nintendo would reap the royalties from these goods, since they were no longer grey-market merchandise already paid for in Asia.
It's somewhat fitting that Pokemon is the last monster hit of the century. The merchandising of Pokemon is a fitting culmination of merchandising trends throughout the past hundred years. The century began with the success of the Buster Brown comic strip, a strip whose most famous merchandise (the Buster Brown line of children's shoes) has long outlasted the original comic. Felix the Cat was extensively merchandised in the 1920s, but it was Walt Disney who redefined merchandising as an insidious art form. Under Disney's eye, all licensed Disney products were given the illusion of being necessities for families with children. So complete was Disney's mastery of merchandising that the Disney Empire was given various uncomplimentary nicknames by its detractors, and critics powerlessly decried the shallow materialism the Walt Disney Company seemed to be encouraging in young people.
Pokemon merchandising, however, engages in tricks so dirty that even the spectre of Uncle Walt himself would shudder with disgust. Consider the phenomenon of Pokemon trading cards, for example. Cards are printed in various frequencies, making certain cards more valuable (and harder to get) than others. Collectors are encouraged to collect every single card available, which is nearly impossible to do with the purchase of only a few packs of cards. Unfortunately, due to the laws of probability, purchasing more packs of cards will not increase your chances of getting a card you don't already have. (This is a simple rule that most gamblers conveniently ignore - for a detailed discussion of probability and how most people seem incapable of reasoning about probability intuitively, I suggest you consult some basic statistics texts in your library.) Baseball cards have always been printed in this way, but it is only recently that such cards have become high status collector's items, and this is the first time in recent years that such a collection of cards was targeted at an audience of underage children. A child can easily spend over $50 a week on Pokemon cards, and that doesn't count the purchase of other Pokemon merchandise.
Nintendo turns the screw in another sick way. One of four special "limited edition collector's cards" is available free to each child who attends certain screenings of Pokemon-The First Movie. The only way to get these cards is to see the movie. Therefore children will have to see the film more than once to get all four cards, and as detailed above the number of times you've seen the movie does not affect your chances of getting a card you don't already have. This is merchandising that flaunts its cynical nature in the faces of parents, grinning at how efficient its commercialism is while mocking the integrity of its intended audience. "Hey kids! Pay to see the same film at least four times and maybe you'll have four ultra-rare cards to add to your collection. If you don't see the movie at all, you're missing out!"
"And there was crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth."
In an environment where toys are elevated to the status of collectibles, and the hobby of collecting is perverted into a Darwinian contest, children are corrupted into miniature models of fanboys. The same bizarre, irrational, borderline pathological behavior you can observe at any comics, sci-fi, or anime convention can now be seen in the schoolyard of your choice. The sheer joy of watching and enjoying a television program is twisted into a quest to gather as much memorabilia as possible. Such behavior is pathetic in adults, who seem to be pursuing the fanboy way of life as a surrogate for maturity or relationships. The same behavior is profoundly disturbing in children.
The disgusting and blatantly in-your-face tactics Nintendo has used to promote Pokemon go beyond other recent attempts to part the kiddies from their cash. Barney the Dinosaur, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, the Teletubbies - hell, I'll even toss in the Spice Girls and the New Kids on the Block - all stopped short of barefaced exploitation. This doesn't mean that future kids' attractions won't attempt such a ruse. I'm sure George Lucas is smacking his forehead right about now, wondering why he didn't come up with the trading card giveaway to promote The Phantom Menace. Lord only knows why the Beatles haven't tried something similar with their recent revival of Yellow Submarine, a film they seemed to care little for when they were still a working band. Now that Pokemon has raised the ante, it's only a matter of time before such manipulative promotions become common place.
Either way, this is bad news for our hobby. Let's take the worst case scenario first. There will be a backlash by parents against Pokemon. The few Pokemon clones which have followed Pikachu and company out of Tokyo will also be removed from the airwaves. The craze will end, and the kids who once thought Ash, Brock and Misty were the heroes for their generation will move onto other things. I'm not sure what the next craze will be; perhaps Britney Spears' younger sister will make a CD in the next couple years. Whatever goodwill towards anime was created by Pokemon's initial success will sour, and anime will be relegated to fringe status once again.
On the other hand, if Pokemon-mania is allowed to continue unchecked, all the anime imported to the States and given priority treatment are likely to be kiddie shows. It's bad enough that anime fans have a reputation for immaturity. If all the general public sees of anime are the children's shows, they will think all anime is suitable only for kids. Furthermore, if a show that is geared so exclusively to children is a ratings powerhouse, a clear message is being sent to the networks: animated cartoons that try to appeal to a broader audience are a waste of time. If you doubt me, compare the ratings for adult-oriented shows like The PJ's and King of the Hill (or even Invasion America) to the monster ratings of Pokemon. There's a very real danger that our entertainment will be infantized, and we will return once more to the days when all televised commercial animation is written solely to sell toys to children. The Filmation and Hanna-Barbera days were dark ones for animation, ones I do not want to return to.
In the end, the virtues of Pokemon as a television program are irrelevant. Pokemon, as a TV show, has a wonderfully hypnotic flavor, a ritualized and stylized logic that hearkens back to Candy Land and Raggedy Ann, and a gentle rhythm and pro-social message. But in the end, the show exists only as an advertisement for more Pokemon products. Any goodwill generated by the program quickly turns bitter, as we must contemplate mounds of plastic debris molded after the characters of the program.
It's enough to make you gnash your teeth, if not wail.
The image of Pikachu on this page was used with satrical intent and is within the guidelines of the "Fair Use Doctrine" as well as legal guidelines establishing acceptable satire. Pikachu's copyright belongs to Nintendo
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