On The Giants of Ghostbusters and the Phantasms of Brands

Note: This post was inspired by Why Kaiju? by Tom De Ville at The Light Fantastic. The metaphor of a corporate-mascot-as-kaiju was too good for me to ignore.

At the climax of Ghostbusters (1984), our protagonists, a team of academics turned entrepreneurs, are tasked by the antagonist to pick the form of their executioner.

“I tried to think of a harmless thing. Something I loved from my childhood. Something that could never, ever possibly destroy us. Mr. Stay Puft.“

The scene works well as parody of King Kong and Godzilla which I recall being on TV all the time around Ghostbuster’s release. It also allows for plenty of gags like “roasting him” with lasers and getting him laid as any sailor at port in New York would be wont to do I guess. The ghosts up to this point in the film were all human-sized. “We used to roast Stay Puft marshmallows by the fire at Camp Waconda,” as a roaring, giant puffball lumbers past buildings toward the panicking foursome.

Time spent around a campfire with friends and family. Exchanging scary stories in the dark. Play. Rites of passage. These experiences are what ultimately shape us individuals at an atomic level. That is our nature. But when Ray, as portrayed by Dan Aykroyd, is asked to empty his head of all thoughts, his mind instantly betrays him. Not with an activity like camping or making s'mores, but with a sugary, corporate product mascot, blown up to monstrous proportion.

Over 40 years later this commentary on consumerism would be square on the nose of Mr. Stay Puft, if he had one. For a film dealing in ghosts and demonic possessions, a character being so haunted by the specter of capitalism is almost too pointed. But most of us are victims of a mass marketing culture that invades our minds with advertisements at every chance. Stay Puft was probably bought out by the fictional equivalent Nestlé in the Ghostbusters timeline 30 years ago, that conglomerate stealing resources and harming humanity and the world for the sake of quick profit.

“Choose. Choose the form of the Destructor.”

Nestlé. Amazon. Microsoft. Exxon Mobil. Would that we had any choice. Would that being crushed by these titans did not feel so relatable today.

Where Ghostbusters feels eerily prescient, its sequel misses the mark in use of giants (this holds true for the rest of the movie, sadly). If the previous film’s final action was Godzilla, Ghostbusters 2 is more Voltron or Ultraman. The ‘busters paint the interior of the Statue of Liberty with an off-white goo that makes it mobile.

They then drive the statue, with a custom modded Nintendo fight stick, through the city of New York blasting music and positive energy. This is to counteract negative goo coursing through the sewers and making people into assholes.

Spooky! Do you feel that? I sense two spirits with us now. The first is a fiction of America that never lived up to what the Statue of Liberty represents – hope, opportunity, justice, refuge. The second is the dead horse of phallic imagery from this series. I love dick jokes as much as the next person but this is going too hard. I can take that though, whereas the Statue of Liberty falls limp compared to kaijus as evil corporations manifest. Lady Liberty traipsing around anywhere else in the world crushing anything in its path is the antithesis of the Ghostbusters 2 portrayal, but it’s more honest.

Jumping to Ghostbusters 2 was premature, but the first movie does have a satisfying conclusion. The lasers the ‘busters use to shoot ghosts are nuclear. They are instructed to never “cross the streams,” else risking a catastrophic explosion. Facing certain death at the flaming hands of a giant Mr. Stay Puft, the Ghostbusters cross their streams and touch the tips of their blasters together. I don’t think this can constrained to a mere metaphorical “fuck you” at a giant manifestation of consumer capitalism. With the combined streams of the four ghostbusters firing at the portal the monster arrived through, the marshmallow explodes into white goo, dousing everyone.

Ghostbusters has a positive message. Don't love brands. Love people! Enjoy the company of those you are with, or the company of yourself. The brand of the marshmallows you bought for that cool summer night doesn't matter. The people you were hanging out and roasting marshmallows with do. This is how we slay monsters.