For some insight into how marketing can make people worship soap, click here.
Or keep reading for a similar phenomenon using a toy Raygun for example. Fabtintoys.com, a website dedicated to vintage toys, defines the “Raygun” as a science fiction directed energy weapon that releases energy, usually with destructive effect. I want one.
The Cosmic Shock Phaser by Schylling incorporates the latest in “Spinfinity Fueled Kinetic Pulse Spin-fire Photon Capacitor” zapper technology. It has an “X-ray Beam Sight” for dead accurate aim, an “Impulse Generator”, a “Sonic Transmitter Unit”, an “Atomical Recharge Magazine” and a comfort grip “Neutron Blast Initiator”. The gold and green, Flash Gordon inspired, retro-futuristic blaster is showcased in an eyepopping box with the Batman Fight-word style “POW” inscribed across the top. I thought to myself, how impossible must it be for a 3-7 year old to resist yanking it off the shelf? Then, once armed, young space soldiers can transport themselves to the outer reaches of the universe and battle Cosmic Klorg-Zombies, Menacing-Worm Monsters and Evil Aliens that threaten Earth with their Planetary Magnetar Intensity Colliders!
That, my friend, is how copy, art and packaging can illicit emotions and bring a hunk of plastic to life. See, good marketing is a result of imagination and imagination inspires imagination. OMG there’s that word again … inspire!!
Fun fact: Batman Fight-words accomplished 2 things, according to ‘The Story Behind Batman Fight Words’…they helped connect the 1966 Batman TV series back to its comic book origins while at the same time covering up fight scenes that were terribly choreographed. If not for “BIIF”, “POW”, “SOCK” and “ZOK”, Batman (and Robin) would be swinging wildly at thin air !