Fans Sink Fangs Into Vampire Tales
As CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller reports, people are always thirsty for new trends, and now these legendary monsters may be satisfying their taste buds.
Once, Count Dracula ruled as the baddest bloodsucker of them all. But in the 1980s, that dark, evil image became younger and hotter in "The Lost Boys."
And vampires grew a conscience in the 1990s after an interview with one, and slayed audiences with "Buffy's" "love 'em but hate 'em" routine.
Now the new night stalkers are giving the other vamps a run for the title: they're are all the rage, in books, movies and on TV.
"There's always been a fascination with lusting after what you can't have," explains Carissa Rosenberg, Seventeen magazine's entertainment editor. "They've just made it a lot cooler."
You can blame the "Twilight" book series and its big screen namesake.
Kristen Stewart says the story's simply irresistible. "It's about two people that are dysfunctionally devoted to each other and how it screws with everything else in their life."
Immortality, seduction, longing - it's all in there. Add a little raunch and you've got TV's hottest new cable series, true blood.
In True Blood, vampires have come out of the coffin, so to speak. The subtext so complete it's meant true love for its co-stars, now engaged in real life.
Marketers are also sucking up the sex appeal. "Trends tend to be cyclical but marketers are really hopping on this and I think this trend is like vampires themselves undead," explains Barbara Lippert from Adweek.
There are cards, Barbie dolls, makeup and clothing. And if you're still hungry for more, with the Twilight sequel "New Moon," and another series, "The Vampire Diairies," set to be released this fall. Fans are letting the undead in, and are perhaps living through them.
And if that doesn't quench your thirst, how about this: True Blood, the drink. It's now available online, so if you really got it bad and need a taste of the vampire lifestyle, this just might be the fix you're looking for.