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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CharlesRyan" data-source="post: 4541622" data-attributes="member: 5265">This is a great example. D&D has never been more in the cultural consciousness, or more in the news. Sure, it's no longer a fad, so it doesn't attract the myriad of spinoff licenses that fads generate, but that has little to do with it's position in the public consciousness.Despite all the lunchboxes, if you asked 10 random people about D&D in the 1980s, 3 of them would have said "huh" and another 3 would have a vague idea that they'd seen it on a lunchbox. (The next 3.9 would mumble something about steam tunnels and devil worship.) Today, D&D's name recognition runs at about 98%. It's as well known as Hersheys or Goodyear (two other brands you don't see on lunchboxes).As for the news, as part of my job I have a clipping service that checks some 25,000 news sources on the internet every day, looking for mentions of a handful of brands I deal with (including D&D). This morning's report includes 28 hits on D&D.In the 80s, a news story that mentioned D&D would be about D&D, and have to have some explanation of what it was (accurate or not). Today, D&D is mentioned in passing, often in a dozen or more news stories every day, with no explanation. The writers know that when they mention D&D, the readers understand what they're talking about. And that understanding is more likely than ever to be at least vaguely realistic.Again, I can't prove the following statement, because I don't have data from the early 80s. But I'd bet my house that D&D gets way more mention in the press these days than it did in the 80s. Fewer stories about book burnings and cults, sure. But way more mentions.D&D is definitely in the mainstream public consciousness in a way it never was in the 80s.</blockquote>

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