It is the case of Harry Potter and the Marketing Magicians. Over the past few days, the literary world's blockbusting boy wizard has quietly conjured a number of corporate deals that would leave the evil warlocks of big business weeping into their crystal balls. Warner Bros has optioned the second, third and fourth books as possible movies. The Coke deal is of the same magnitude as its sponsorship of the Sydney Olympics, and represents one of the largest global marketing programs. Yet, while the chairman of Coke, Douglas Daft, seems assured that things will go better with Harry, the contract places heavy restrictions on the manner in which his company can use the character's name and image.
Harry dolls are completely out of the question.
Ms Rowling has often stated her violent dislike of action figures. That was part of the reason she decided to go with Coke and not McDonald's, which was also vying for the contract. Coke, by contrast, will fund child literacy programs as part of its deal. Coke will be allowed to slap Harry's face on the side of its drink cans, but Ms Rowling is adamant there will be no scenes of her young wizard slurping the sponsor's product in the film. About 67 million copies of the four Potter books have been sold worldwide in 200 languages.