Posts Tagged ‘Hasbro’
“To a real child anything will serve as a toy”*…
The story of a toy that both confirms and contradicts that sentiment, Mr. Potato Head…
Mr. Potato Head is an American toy brand consisting of a plastic model of a potato “head” to which a variety of plastic parts can attach — typically ears, eyes, shoes, hat, nose, pants and mouth.
Mr. Potato Head was invented and manufactured by George Lerner in 1949, but was first distributed by Hasbro in 1952… In its original form, Mr. Potato Head was offered as separate plastic parts with pushpins to be affixed to a real potato or other vegetable. Due to complaints regarding rotting vegetables and new government safety regulations, Hasbro began including a plastic potato body with the toy set in 1964.
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In the early 1940s, Brooklyn-born toy inventor George Lerner came up with the idea of inserting small, pronged body and face parts into fruits and vegetables to create a “funny face man”. Some speculate he got the idea from his wife’s nephew Aaron Bradley, who was seen placing sticks inside of potatoes in the family garden. Lerner would often take potatoes from his mother’s garden and, using various other fruits and vegetables as facial features, he would make dolls with which his younger sisters could play. The grape-eyed, carrot-nosed, potato-headed dolls became the principal idea behind the plastic toy which would later be manufactured.
Mr, Potato Head turned out to be a trailblazer– the pioneer of a new form of marketing that supercharged the toy category and paved the way for the toy-character-centered entertainment environment in which we live…
On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy advertised on television. The campaign was also the first to be aimed directly at children; before this, commercials were only targeted at adults, including toy advertisements. The commercial revolutionized marketing, and caused an industrial boom. Over one million kits were sold in the first year…
“Mr. Potato Head” from @Wikipedia.
Image above: from the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum
* John Cowper Powys
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As we play, we might send tasty birthday greetings to the literary genius behind green eggs and ham, Theodor Seuss Geisel, AKA “Dr. Seuss”; he was born on this date in 1904. After a fascinating series of early-career explorations, Geisel settled on a style that created what turned out to be the perfect “gateway drug” to book addiction– and a love of words– for generations of young readers.
The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you’ll go.
– I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)
For one’s “inner capitalist”…
From The Poke:
click image or here (and again) to enlarge
Monopoly, the iconic board game that for decades has instilled the values of aggressive capitalism into the young, joined forces today with the hit TV show The Wire.
“The Wire is all about corners,” says Hasbro spokesperson Jane McDougall, “and the Monopoly board is all about corners. It was a natural fit.”
Based around the journey a young gangster might take through the fictionalised Baltimore of the show, players move from corner to stoop, past institutions featured in successive series like the school system and the stevedores union, acquiring real estate, money and power before ending up at the waterfront developments and City Hall itself.
“Where the original game has ‘Community Chest’ and ‘Chance’,” McDougall continues, “we have ‘Re-up’ and ‘The Game’ which reflects the chance element of life on the streets. If you draw a ‘The Game’ card you might for instance get ‘Prop Joe calls a meet – go straight to Collington Square’ or ‘Drive-By! You get shot. Miss a go’ or even ‘Chris and Snoop are looking for you! Hide! Miss 2 goes’.”
“We hope The Wire Monopoly game will go down well not just with fans of the show, but everyone who secretly wishes to be a poor violent black drug dealer from America.”
As we slip into our Orioles jackets, we might recall that it was on this date in 1975 that Saturday Night Live debuted, with inaugural guest host George Carlin.
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