"Choose Your Allegiance"

I saw this Monday in a Walgreen's: M&M's new "Choose Your Allegiance" marketing campaign tie-in with the soon-to-be-released Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Now, I am really geeked about Episode III (although my expectations are low, given Episodes I and II), but I'm not sure about this campaign. The idea is that you choose between the Jedi M&M's (peanut? regular chocolate?) and Dark Side M&M's (dark chocolate?). It's a cute campaign, with lots of graphics, but really, don't we know which side ultimately triumphs? I mean, in "Episode VI," formerly known as Return of the Jedi, the Jedi triumph over the Dark Side. So is M&M's suggesting that we should choose between the winners and the losers? What kind of choice is that? Especially when the losers are EVIL. C'mon people.

I've actually discussed this with other people. Some have suggested that people might choose the Dark Side because evil is somehow more "cool" than the good side. But the problem here is that creepy Emperor. He just isn't that attractive a draw. Who'd want to hang out with that guy?

Others have suggested that this is like people choosing to be Confederate Civil War re-enactors. There is the "romanticism" of the Lost Cause (as misguided as it may be). Can one compare the Lost Cause of Southern lore with the Galactic Empire? I mean, the Confederates had dashing heroes (in the opinion of many); they were outgunned, but fought better with less than the Union. The Empire: The Death Star. (Actually, 2 Death Stars.) The Enpire was never outgunned. The clear analog of the Lost Cause is to the Rebel Alliance. So there may be appeal in the outgunned South (other than that whole SLAVERY problem), but not in the planet-busting Empire.

Sorry, this campaign doesn't make sense. I know that may be too high as a threshold for advertising campaigns.

Warning: This is only the first of many Star Wars posts to come . . .