“Hey, kids. who wants a shot from the merch gun?!": LEGO batman as a gateway commodity intertext

Abstract

In this chapter, authors McAllister and LaGroue consider the integrated messages of LEGO Batman’s various versions, including 2017s The LEGO Batman Movie. The authors argue that LEGO aimed to promote a desire for the LEGO and Batman brands’ ongoing commercialism by strategically developing multi-commodifiable elements and cross-promotional partners. The authors further argue that LEGO’s use of these elements can serve, more generally, to socialize children into a branded and commodified society. By pairing expensive, complex toy sets featuring a title character known for gadgets with a track record of partnering with (and promoting) other branded characters, and by presenting Batman as an isolated figure who could be reformed with other characters’ help, LEGO created many strategic opportunities for the cross-promotion of commodities to benefit its own brand and those of its franchise partners.