Like some sort of maniacal Bond villain, the world is apparently not enough for Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling. Despite book sales in the tens of millions and a slew of merchandising deals, Rowling apparently can’t get enough.

With a new ad campaign featuring grizzled, leather-clad bikers, skateboarders and “couch potatoes,” as one ad rep has described the ads it in The Chicago Tribune, Rowling and her publisher, Scholastic Inc., are trying to tap into the “adult” market.

The ads, set to run in Rolling Stone and a number of other publications, all feature the aforementioned “adult” archetypes alongside the witty slogan “We all have our reasons. What’s yours?”

The real question is, why? According to a 2001 study, Potter’s audience is already comprised of roughly 43 percent adults over the age of 18. Maybe it’s me, but the entire matter simply smacks of blatant greed.

I suppose book sales of more than 11 million of the latest Rowling effort, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” and an endless catalog of endorsed products simply isn’t enough for the Limey author. Potter obviously isn’t ubiquitous enough in American popular culture, and the matter must be remedied.

Let me just come out and say this: I hate Harry Potter. Not so much him personally, or as the watered-down, predictable, mundane retread of a children’s character, either. What I really hate are the people who love Potter and his creator J.K. Rowling with the fervor the worst religious zealot.

Maybe it’s because I picked up the books after they had become a worldwide phenomenon, but I read the first two in the series to see what all the fuss was about and was left disappointed.

All I could think was why grown men and women would clamor so vehemently for this drivel. Call me a sad traditionalist, or maybe just a hopeless nerd, but if I’m going to read science fiction/ fantasy I’d much sooner pick up a tome of Tolkien or Orson Scott Card than ever consider the likes of Rowling.

Don’t get me wrong, however, any book, or series of books, that gets kids interested in reading is a wonderful thing. My problem is the legions of adults who cite a Potter opus as their favorite book. It seems as though adults comprise a good portion of total sales of Potter, so my question is why Scholastic would wage this ad campaign for a reason other than money hungry profiteering. Or maybe it’s simply because Scholastic and Rowling can.

Scholastic can market all it wants, but any Harley riding biker carrying “Potter” in a side satchel should have his leather jacket summarily burned to a cinder.

If Rowling really wants to tap into the adult market, why not simply continue to shill her precious Potter into a wider variety of products and ad campaigns? If Potter can sell books, toys, games and school supplies, why not more adult-oriented products?

Why not Harry Potter taking pulls of tequila in a Jose Cuervo ad or smiling gleefully alongside an Astroglide logo or even taking a long drag from an unfiltered Camel wide? Now THAT might appeal to a more adult audience.

Maybe I’m merely the bitter cynic lashing out at this generation’s best-selling author. I mean, she’s sold millions of copies while I’m a barely literate student who would feel like Stephen King if I knew my stuff was read and enjoyed by any more than my immediate family.

So be it.

People often attack Rowling and the “Potter” series for supposed “occult” elements or the increasingly dark tones of the text, but no one has bothered to bat an eye at Rowling and Scholastic’s loathsome greed.