We’ve featured the Sith Lord on SoyaCincau.com a couple of times and he’s appeared in a few other ads promoting a plethora of other products. Has commercialisation of movie characters gone beyond reason that it affects your relationship with the iconic character?
Actor endorsements, cross-promotion and product placement are almost as old as the medium of film itself and as a society we’ve come to accept it. However, it seems a little repugnant to use a fictional cinematic character to endorse products, and raises new issues for me, especially when it’s a character as iconic as Darth Vader. First and foremost it feels like a collision between art and commercialism. With an actor, you’re conscious that it is within their job description to play a part, and to a small degree, there is a bond of trust and honesty. However, when it’s a fictional character, it can be manipulated to espouse the benefits of anything the client wishes, reducing it from the result of a creative process to a mere corporate mouthpiece. Essentially, the character is torn from the fantasy realm, and thrust in to the real world, now just a commodity like those it is trying to sell.
Read more about it here.
