As you know, "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" came out mid-December, and is one of the largest movies of all time. It's the first movie to come out in the series since Disney bought Lucasfilms. As you also know, "Star Wars" is on everything from fruit to water bottles, and people aren't happy with this.
To be honest, I'm kind of surprised by this public outcry. Where were these same people when the "Minions" movie came out and Minions were slapped on every imaginable item? If people are upset over the marketing for "Star Wars" ruining the franchise, I have old "Star Wars" merchandise from the early 2000s. Aggressive marketing for a movie isn't a band new thing and Disney isn't the only one who does it. I have old jelly jars that my family uses as cups from when the "Pokemon" movie came out. It seems like people are making it out to seem like this is a never-before-heard-of practice and that the merchandise is ruining the movie.
Yes, there are "Star Wars" characters slapped on food products, just like there have been princesses and dinosaurs previously slapped on cereal boxes. The one post I saw was someone having a meltdown over BB-8 being on an oranges bag. One reason why companies put beloved characters on their food items is to get kids to bug their parents to buy them; is it really a bad thing if a kid gets their parents to possibly buy more produce? To me this doesn't seem like a bad thing, I used to work with kids and I loved having food with characters on the label. It was so much easier to get a kid to eat a thing of fruit snacks that had SpongeBob on the label than just plain pictures of fruit. If a kid loves R2-D2 and wants to eat carrots because it's on the front of the packaging then at least the kid is eating something healthy by choice.
Lastly, people are complaining that Disney just wants to make money. News flash, every company wants to make money and that's not a bad thing. Disney made $10 billion in profit from merchandise for "Cars." My nephews have Lightning McQueen swim trunks and they love to go swimming because they love to wear those swim trunks. The profit from "Cars" was used to create Cars-Land at Disney's California Adventure, where they put in multiple new restaurants and some themed attractions that people love to visit with their families. This created new jobs at the park in terms of the construction and people to work the new features. Disney is now putting in new "Star Wars" attractions, which I personally am pumped for. Disney making a profit from "Star Wars" doesn't mean the fans can't enjoy it.
Slap Darth Vader's face on a thing of coffee creamer, I don't care. Every big movie tries to get out as much merchandise as possible and if someone wants to buy "Star Wars" Band-Aids they have the option.
