By Matthew Flitton

The magic is going. Soon there will be nothing special about Harry Potter. He'll be just another face on a cereal box. And a Coke can. And a toy. And candy.

When Harry Potter appeared, children and adults grabbed the book because it was something new, something different. That difference sparked imaginations everywhere.

With the omnipresence of Harry, Hermione and Hagrid, children can use the figures to re-create the books. They can buy special merchandise to pretend they're the characters, doing exactly what the characters have done in books and movies. It sounds like a marketer's dream, and not imaginative at all.

Toys R Us lists 62 Harry Potter toys. You can now buy board games, figurines, bookends, dolls and calendars. You can build Hogwart's castle with Legos. Quidditch racing tracks are available. In these, Harry and other players zoom about on brooms above a racecar track. The Nimbus 2000 broom is even available for purchase. It's a toy with zooming sounds like a low-flying jet. Or maybe violent flushing. Or maybe violent flushing on a low-flying jet. Anyway, the only things Rowling hasn't marketed are the pets. Next thing you know, someone will begin selling white owls, ginger cats and brown rats.

Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes, understood the dangers of merchandising. He fought against it for years. In The Calvin and Hobbes 10th Anniversary Book, he said that using characters to market things kills the soul of the story.

"When cartoon characters appear on countless products, the public inevitably grows bored and irritated with them, and the appeal and value of the original work are diminished," he said. "Nothing dulls the edge of a new and clever cartoon like saturating the market with it."

I'm not trying to say that people will stop reading the books because of the movies, but a Potter backlash is imminent. Some people will begin boycotting Harry Potter just as others boycott Wal-Mart (where you can find an entire aisle full of Hogwart's toys and games). Within a few years, I expect Lord Voldemort fan clubs to spring up across the Internet.

J.K. Rowling claims she's saving the integrity of her product by not allowing product placement. What that means is, while we may not see McDonald's or Coke in Harry Potter movies, we see Harry Potter on Happy Meals and Cokes.

Such a noble stand is akin to putting a Band-Aid on an amputation. Magic is mysterious. If we could all turn into cats, there would be nothing special about it. When something is magic it has distinction and enchantment.

Harry Potter the book had that. When you see him wherever you go, there is no distinction, just ubiquity. There is no enchantment, just saturation. Magical characters become so much wallpaper. Indeed, the magic becomes mundane.

NW
MS

September 1998
October 1998

January 1999
February 1999
March 1999
April 1999
September 1999
October 1999
November 1999
December 1999

January 2000
February 2000
March 2000
April 2000
May 2000
June 2000
July 2000
August 2000
September 2000
October 2000
November 2000
December 2000

January 2001
February 2001
March 2001
April 2001
May 2001
June 2001
July 2001
August 2001
September 2001
October 2001
November 2001