Fandoms, peer pressure, and Slytherin

     Nearly every Sunday, I spend some time on Postsecret to check out the update. For the uninitiated, PostSecret is a collection of secrets that are posted online after being sent in as postcards. This week, I saw this secret:

I've read/listened to all three more times than I'm willing to admit. 

I don't even know how many times I've gone through the entire series, but I read Goblet of Fire more than 30 times. It gets better every time!

I laughed a bit, but then thought about how I've now attached myself to all these fandoms without giving them a second thought. Twilight started in high school, and once I read one book (in 6 hours), I invested time and one Christmas to get the books. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was one of the first books I read on Alexander Helios, and in three days, I had finished the trilogy. The Hunger Games, the most recent series I've become invested in, has been different in that I've only listened to the audiobook of the first book. However, I plan to listen to the second audiobook when the semester end. Before this wave, I read The Da Vinci code and Angels and Demons (and I still remain adamant that Angels and Demons is a better book and a better movie). Before that, I had Harry Potter (and so did millions of others). In every single case, however, I was not one of the first wave of fans. I've always been in the second wave of fans. I've jumped on the bandwagon and enjoyed the ride well after the trendsetters, but I've started to wonder if there is some truth to this secret. Is fandom a new form of peer pressure?

With all these fandoms, Hollywood has come a knockin'. And these movies have become and more profitable. The Hunger Games scored a huge opening weekend, the third best opening weekend of all time and only this weekend was finally beat by another film for first place in the box office. What I'm trying to get at is this: These fandoms begins as a small community that reads a books and really loves it and balloons into a community that makes a studio $155 million one weekend and makes household names of actors. However, in order to do so, these fandoms are the ones who do the promotion. The NYT, in a fascinating article titled, "How 'Hunger Games' Guilt Up Must-See Fever" details how a team of 21 people with a paltry budget of $45 million made the Hunger Games go viral. Knowing how much time us young adults spend online, and the new marketing strategies that are used, how can these fandoms not partly be driven by peer pressure?

Friends who are obsessed become ambassadors for series. That's how the Hunger Games finally caught my eye. A high school friend posted a picture of his Panem ID, and then I googled Panem. I decided, if he's reading it, maybe I should be reading it. In addition, there's always the anxiety about missing out on a cultural reference point. Will comedians make jokes that I don't understand? Will friends look at you like the weirdo who has never heard of Cinna? Will I be missing out on something exciting and destined to become a pop culture fixture? So many of the items we consume, I consume, have come to our attention through  other people. You have to consider this effect when you're trying to sell this product, and so far, marketing has been spot on. If I had read the entire trilogy, I would have followed the entire process of making the Hunger Games from casting to release date. I would have shelled out the money to watch the film (and the $3 for a coke), and I would be telling other people to watch the movie as well. After all, that's what I did with Twilight and Harry Potter.  I was trying to introduce people to the material that drew me, and in doing so, I just made a marketing agent's life a bit easier. So, at the end of the day, when do you think I should expect my checks from Warner Bros. and Summit?



P.S. Pottermore, a great way to continue the experience of Harry Potter, has gone live. And, I'll admit that I was one of the people who chased around the internet for clues to enter the beta site. This just seems to me proof that fandoms create their own buzz. The fact I now want to own the ebooks of Harry Potter is an example of how effective fandoms are at making me spend more money. Now that I've been sorted into Slytherin, it also means I'm in the market for a new scarf...