Commodification of Vampires

With the release of Twilight, I find it appropriate to discuss how vampires have been commodified. Out of all of the mythological creatures, we, as humans, are drawn most to vampires. They have eternal youth, speed, grace, etc. So how are vampires consumed by popular culture?

HBO released a new series called TrueBlood. It plays up to the suture of a pretty human girl falling in love with a slightly older vampire. It appears that you cannot have a vampire story if you do not have a story of forbidden love between a vampire and a human. TrueBlood does not disappoint. It also has a cultural analysis of the gay community and the African American communities in the "Deep South." Bill is constructed by the culture industry to be everything popular culture expects a vampire to be: handsome, modest, and deadly. He is your vampire with a soul. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? And that leads us to:

Buffy itself is a perfect analysis of popular culture. There are enough references to popular culture alone to write a blog, if not a complete, fully detailed essay. Buffy also has the suture of young, pretty girl falling in love with an older, handsome vampire; in this case, his name is Angel instead of Bill. Buffy is a commodity that has been further commodified. Buffy commodified the idea of vampires which in turn has led to the commodification of Buffy itself. There are Buffy books, t-shirts, and dvd's of every season. Speaking of books:

How Twilight has commodified vampires: all four books: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, Breaking Dawn, t-shirts, posters, the Twilight movie, movie memorabilia, etc. Twilight: a story of a pretty human girl...falling in love with a handsome vampire.