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Palgrave Macmillan

The Road to Wicked

The Marketing and Consumption of Oz from L. Frank Baum to Broadway

  • Book
  • © 2018

Overview

  • Combines cultural and literary analysis, archival research, narrative and gender theory, in-depth interviews with both consumers and producers, ethnography, and analysis of social media
  • Illustrates how different (re)iterations of Oz across textual—and performance—forms are consumed by different market segments
  • Examines the interplay of authorial intent and consumer effect

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

  1. The Road

  2. Wicked

  3. Wicked

  4. Beyond Wicked

  5. Beyond Wicked

Keywords

About this book

The Road to Wicked examines the long life of the Oz myth. It is both a study in cultural sustainability— the capacity of artists, narratives, art forms, and genres to remain viable over time—and an examination of the marketing machinery and consumption patterns that make such sustainability possible. Drawing on the fields of macromarketing, consumer behavior, literary and cultural studies, and theories of adaption and remediation, the authors examine key adaptations and extensions of Baum’s 1900 novel. These include the original Oz craze, the MGM film and its television afterlife, Wicked and its extensions, and Oz the Great and Powerful—Disney’s recent (and highly lucrative) venture that builds on the considerable success of Wicked. At the end of the book, the authors offer a foundational framework for a new theory of cultural sustainability and propose a set of explanatory conditions under which any artistic experience might achieve it.


Reviews

“The Road to Wicked is notable title that goes into the details of consumer-product relations and explains the many steps the industry in cooperation with the arts and entertainment industry prepares and carries out for the simple motive of commercial success.” (A. Ebert, popcultureshelf.com, February, 2019)

“A wonderful book that offers an insightful and innovative case study of cultural sustainability—how stories like Oz stay popular over time, across cultures, and reinvent themselves for new audiences. Especially useful for its exploration into how consumers connect with all aspects of the Wizard of Oz brand culture, from Frank Baum’s original Oz books, the famous Technicolor Wizard of Oz film, The Wiz, and Wicked, the bestselling book and record-setting hit Broadway play. The Road to Wicked makes an exciting and original contribution to interdisciplinary efforts to understand and theorize the growth of branded entertainment marketing. It should be useful to researchers and practitioners in a wide range of fields, as well as fans of Oz, Dorothy, and her little dog, too.” (Jonathan E. Schroeder, William A. Kern Professor, School of Communication, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Management and Marketing, University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA

    Kent Drummond, Terri L. Rittenburg

  • Department of English, University of Wyoming, Laramie, USA

    Susan Aronstein

About the authors

Kent Drummond is Associate Professor of Management and Marketing in the College of Business at the University of Wyoming, USA.

Susan Aronstein is Professor of English and Director of the University Honors Program at the University of Wyoming, USA.

Terri L. Rittenburg is Professor Emerita of Management and Marketing in the College of Business at the University of Wyoming, USA.

Bibliographic Information

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