Twilight: The phenomenon

Last year around this time, I wrote about how the Twilight Saga (and that’s exactly what it has become for us non-twilighters, a saga) was one of the most self-indulgent novels that I’ve ever encountered. Unfortunately, the fan base has followed the author in this endeavor of expecting evermore out of their love interest. I wish to concede that expectations of men in general should in fact be raised, and if they were, I daresay we might live up to those expectations as a group. But there are certain reservations with the Twilight story itself that I hold. For instance, what does Edward benefit from pursuing a female who is self-destructive, suicidal, and all out undecided on her future. Granted, I’ve only read the first book and that was clearly a mistake on my part. Yet, I still find it interesting that a girl such as Bella should be desired in the first place, especially by someone who has lived as long as Edward has lived. Can he really believe that in all his years of existence, she was his best option? If so, what does this message tell us about women in society? As a man, I have seen evidence that there are many women out there who are smart, intellectual, self appreciating, decisive, confident, and athletic. All things Bella is not. In my opinion, Jacob was the hero of the story. He was the real man. The underdog fighting for the girl whom he has fancied from a distance. And yet, his timidity held him back just slightly because of the respect he had for this girl. Yes ladies, that is the real story of courtship. There are fewer Edward’s in the world than Jacob’s, and thank the heavens for that. But all of this is a moot point for a very simple reason: Twilight is very, very popular. So I must accept it as pop culture.

And so it is. This article’s intentions in the first place were not to hate on Twilight, but to praise it for what it is. Of course, you had to live through a few of my objections before I could get to the meat of the argument. But let’s just say that my quips are over, and my praises have begun.

Every once in a while, something comes along that is wildly popular for unknown reasons. In most cases, this epidemic hits for a period of a few, possibly six, months, and fades away. The memory and impact of that item is felt as a generation, and then replayed ten years later on VH1’s set of miniseries’. Think gigapet (nanobabies, tomagoctchi’s), pogs, chumbawumba, the Talkboy (ala Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin), and Pokemon Cards. But on occasion, a phenomenon will surface which is incredibly sticky. Something that you think will go away, but just doesn’t. Twilight is one of these things. But where does its stickiness originate? What made a simple story so inventive? And what makes thousands of fans in southern Texas flock to the theatre despite the oncoming threat and torrential rains of Hurricane Alex?

It all started with timing, impeccable timing. Twilight surfaced about the same time that Harry Potter 7 was beginning its descent. We all know that Harry Potter was famously put together by another woman, this time one who resided in The United Kingdom. The fact that J.K. Rowling was a British author only buoyed her success here in the States, but I will touch on that point later. But since America and countless other nations had just lived through nine years of anticipation and excitement for Harry Potter (Sorcerer’s Stone 1998-2007 Deathly Hallows), we were ready to jump on another bandwagon. We were looking for a similar experience that we felt with Harry Potter—a similar high. It is a fact that addictive personalities always seem to have at least one addiction. And while they may be able to quit one of their addictions, they often replace it with another. You may know someone who has quit smoking, an oral habit, only to replace it with over-eating, another oral habit. Many recovering alcohol addicts pick up gambling. The list goes on. America has an addictive personality. We strive on instant gratification. We cannot wait for the next season, the next episode, the next book, the next hit. And herein lies part of the Twilight success. We were just plain ready for the next book high. And the book that came along with perfect timing was Twilight. In fact, Twilight displaced Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for the number one spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. But its success wasn’t limited to America; Twilight was also an international bestseller. What made it so sticky outside of the United States?

I was talking to a friend of mine recently about the World Cup, and he mentioned that America doesn’t love soccer, but we love Europe. In turn, when Europe is the center stage for any big event, America tunes in and embraces the culture. I understand that The World Cup is being held in South Africa, but no one is more excited than Europe because they love soccer (futbol?). And because we admire certain portions of their culture, we think the World Cup is a big deal too. I think this holds very true. And I think this was part of Harry Potter’s stickiness in the States. Take Quidditch for example—when I first delved into the Harry Potter books, Quidditch was such an interesting game. I was excited for the next match. Later, I found out that Quidditch is an amped-up version of soccer. And I was intrigued. But everything British makes me intrigued. Because J.K. Rowling implements British ideas into her books, they were foreign to us, yet extremely fascinating. And it stuck. We loved it. The same is happening across the globe for Stephanie Meyer. Her books are extremely American and self-indulgent and other countries love it. In a sense, they feel as though they can imagine what it would be like to live in a small town in Washington State. And just the fact that earlier in this article I wrote about how Jacob “fancied” Bella created a spark of interest inside of you. We fancy Europe’s language as well.

Thus far, timing and personality have been important to the success of Twilight. But there are many products that have good timing and have originated in Europe that didn’t stick in the United States. We needn’t go much further than the game of Cricket to know that. So what else did Twilight offer that made it so popular? Simply, appeal to young people.

Marketers know that if they can get the kids to like it, the parents will purchase it. Why do you think that all the sugary cereals at the grocery store are near the bottom of the shelves? Studies show that sugary cereals sell better when they are placed on the same eye levels as children. When mommy is shopping for her healthy cereals, the child is walking beside her salivating at the box of Fruity Pebbles. Child begins to beg and scream and cry for the cereal he or she wants, and mommy wishes to make child happy or least stop child from making a scene, so mommy concedes and purchases the cereal. Marketing at its finest folks. And occasionally, a cereal will come along that is pleasing to mommy and child. This is where Honey Nut Cheerio’s has made its mark. And this is the Twilight model.

The Tweens love the fact that they can picture Jacob and Edward shirtless running around after their dream girl, so they gush and cry for their parents to take them and their friends to the theatre to watch the films. Meanwhile, peer pressure requires that they all read the books in preparation for the films. But tweens don’t produce an income. They must find another means of income in order to purchase the products that their friends are urging them to purchase. Naturally, they go to the first source of income that they can conjure up—their parents. And thus the beginnings of an epidemic. The strange thing about Twilight is that it didn’t stop at tweenie boppers—it extended to the parents as well. This brought about another kind of sticky.

Hooked on Phonics is educational-based material that is designed to help children learn to read through phonetic exercises. Through its ad campaign, it was wildly popular. In its advertisements, you could hear small children saying “Hooked on Phonics worked for me!” which was closely followed by the easy to remember phone number “1-800-ABCDEFG.” The phrase stuck with America, and parents bought the product in waves. At its peak, Hooked on Phonics led to sales of over $400M per year. Parents loved it because it taught kids how to read in fun ways. Furthermore, the kids really loved its methods. It was a fun way to learn. This only perpetuated the parents’ love for the product, which led them to purchase the upper levels of the product. Because the kids liked something that was viewed as beneficial to children, the parents approved and loved the product even more—leading to an epidemic of sales.

Twilight has had the same effect on parents. The good morals of the author—Stephanie Meyer—have spilled onto the pages of the book. Bella is a relatively normal girl experiencing the same struggles as girls do at her age. She struggles with being in love with a boy, even two. She struggles with popularity and self esteem—nothing abnormal for girls at that age. But parents like the way she deals with these things. They like that she remains celibate and chaste despite social pressures that scream for the opposite in today’s popular culture. The overall message of the book is positive. So when the tweens love the books and films, and the parents see that the message is strongly positive, the parents endorse the product even further. With young adults and older adults on board, combined with the timing of the Twilight series, there was nowhere for the franchise to go but up.

There is no accurate estimate of how much the Twilight Saga will ultimately make in profits. However, we can learn from a product such as Twilight. Perhaps Stephanie Meyer anticipated the end of the Harry Potter era and the opportunity for another stop-gap series to arise, but probably not. She was just in the right place at the right time with an interesting idea. Maybe Twilight reflects Stephanie Meyer’s girlhood memories and all-American attitude? And somehow, this helped in the international success of Twilight. In the future, people will continue to try to find the Honey Nut Cheerio’s and Hooked on Phonics’ of the world—products that appeal to both children and adults. If they can do this, and time it right, perhaps they will find millions of dollars sitting in their laps. And like getting bitten by a vampire, their lives will change forever.