False Advertising in Twilight Cover Art
Vampire Hands and Apples: The story promised by the cover artist.
On the cover, there are a pair of pale vampire hands holding an apple. The reasonable consumer would take this as a good sign. Obviously the writer is someone skilled enough to relate vampires to apples.
They couldn't be more wrong; this is one of the many false promises made in order to lure in consumers.
The book does not delve into the mysterious similarities between vampires and my second favourite fruit. The apple on the front cover is as close to symbolism as the book gets. To top things off, it is a poor-quality symbol.
After reading the book, the consumer is still left mostly unsure as to what it is symbolised on the cover. After reading the book myself, I had a hunch that it might be the "Forbidden Fruit" of the garden of Eden, but I still had hope. I had to be sure that it was intended to represent the “Forbidden Fruit” before launching such allegations against the parties involved. I found it unlikely that a plotless wreck like Twilight could make it past a sober editor on the power of the most contrived, over-used, piece-of-**** symbol in all of the romance genre. Maybe the apple could be something else? Maybe I missed the entire point of the story? Maybe after finding out what it was the entire book would fall into place?
I was naive.
After checking in with Stephenie's site, my worst fears were confirmed; not only was the aforementioned apple intended to represent the "Forbidden Fruit", but the author had not mentioned the said fruit in the course of the novel.
This is false advertising and a transgression against consumer trust. When a consumer sees a pair of vampire hands holding an apple on the cover of a book, they expect a book about vampire hands and apples. Delivering a written-out, toned-down female sexual fantasy in the place of apple-vampires is a felony (Well maybe not, but it should be).
It is unfair to the consumer to claim that it is symbolic. If the cover artist wanted to put a symbol on the front cover, they would have the responsibility to ensure that the symbol be in the book. The artist could have placed a lion and a lamb on the cover (after that cringe-worthy line from Eddie) or even Bella's truck which symbolises... her freedom... or something. Anything that was at least mentioned in the book would have made a better symbol than an apple.
If a consumer were to see a book with a wizard on the cover, they would assume that the book would be about wizards, or at least a symbolic wizard. If instead, the book were about pinball, the consumer would be righteously distraught.
"Oh, but the main character is a pinball wizard", The cover artist might say. That provides little consolation if the protagonist was never described as a pinball wizard. the artist cannot use arbitrary symbols just because they make for a nice cover. Any symbol could relate to almost any novel somehow. Imagine if an artist were to put an apple on the front of Harry Potter; it could symbolise wizardry. The same goes for Twilight. Apples have nothing to do with the novel in question, yet one is featured on the front cover. Almost anything could make it past the Twilight cover-art committee under their current quality regulations.
Now you may be thinking "Aren't you making a big deal of this, KC? I mean, the apple does capture the general mood of Twilight, right?"
No it doesn't. Stephenie Meyer dwells on the fact that Edward is a vampire for about ten seconds before launching him and Bella into a flurry of daydreamy situations.
"I shouldn't be with you, you know; you're a minor and I'm one hundred and- I mean, I'm a vampire."
"I'm cool with that. You smell nice."
"Okay. You smell nice too. You wanna go out?"
"Sure."
As you can see by the above plot-summary, Twilight has little to do with forbidden love.
The consumer is also misled by the assortment of awards bestowed by respected literary organisations on the back cover.
Best book of the year? Best book of the decade so far?
This is false advertising as well. These organisations have no authority to make such claims because book bestness (actual Scientific term (note that it is "scientific". No one can refute science)) is subjective and immeasurable.
These awards lead the consumer to believe that the book has been critically reviewed by the said organisations and awarded so based on merit. This is not the case. I have reason to believe that the awards are completely arbitrary. How could some teeny vampire fanfiction beat out Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for best book of the decade? The awards do not seem to follow any standards of quality. As such, the corporations responsible for such awards should be held accountable to the public who purchased Twilight under false pretences.
The one thing on the cover jacket that hinted to the true nature of the book was a small square on the spine that read "MT Books". In the interests of the consumers, Empty Books' logo should be enlarged to fill the entire front cover instead of the small space allotted on the spine.
I know that the Twilight cover-quality committee takes such matters seriously and I hope that they respond quickly and efficiently to better meet the needs of consumers and to prevent further damages.
