Vampires, Zombies, and the American Economy

(If that doesn't sound like a fascinating post, I don't know what does...)

There is a solid correlation between the popularity of zombies or vampires and the state of the economy of the United States of America. No, seriously.

Zombies are mindless, unthinking consumers of resources (including brains) while moving in unstoppable droves.

Vampires, on the other hand, are calculating and intelligent consumers that typically feel deep guilt about their consumption.

To stretch the metaphor a bit, zombies are mindless consumerism and vampires are buyer's remorse.

In the 1960s, the modern zombie was born (thanks, George A. Romero!) and they were a huge hit. They declined a little in popularity during the 1970s, until 1978 when Dawn of the Dead and an Invasion of the Body Snatchers sequel were both released. Zombies dominated through the early to mid-1980s. In the late 1980s, vampires got back on their feet (after suffering some mockery thanks to movies like Drak Pack and Blackula) and stuck around through the 1990s. When the 2000s came around, zombies came back in full swing. Even with the rampaging bull that is the Twilight franchise, vampires only surpassed zombies in 2006, then dipped back below them until 2009.

Now, I'm not really heavily into politics and economics, but you can see the general trends matching up with the ones I just outlined.

Isn't that cool?

(Remember kids: correlation does not prove causation. But it might be interesting to poll a large group of voting-age Americans and see which they fear more - zombies or vampires - and which way they vote... Some science fair kid get on that for me.)