In 1989, a new brand of disposable diapers appeared in stores called Huggies. They were made for children to put them on like underwear and protect clothing in such a way as a diaper would. My mother, along with millions of other mothers, switched to “Huggies” when I matured from an infant to toddler. But, why would so many people switch from the diapers that already shielded their children’s accidents away from their clothes? Once you have seen one Huggies commercial you will understand that it’s all in the slogan and advertising.
Shown in one Huggies commercial aired in 1994, only five seconds of the whole commercial focused on the material and effectiveness of the pull-up. Much of the commercial shows cute toddlers using the restroom on their own. The slogan, “I’m a big kid now” is sung by a child-like voice at the end of every commercial as well. The objective of the commercial was to show children that wearing these types of pull-ups will actually make them a big kid (or at least feel that way). It also gave parents the idea that the actual pull-ups could help potty train a toddler. This type of advertisement could be compared to the “Revolution in Marketing and Childrearing explain by Gary S. Cross in “Modern Childhood, Modern Toys.”pg50 With the advance of toy manufacturing, Cross believed that advertising agents created new forms of persuasion that used “nostalgic themes and colorful personalities in order to establish a friendly image.” He believed many Americans were sold on the idea that those new, modern products would create a happier and more well off family. Would one believe that a regular pull-up could help potty train a child rather than making it easier for them to wet themselves and get away with it? Well, “Huggies” made millions a believer.
I’ve been in love with airplanes from the moment I was born. The hospital in which I was born lies on the approach path for my city’s international airport. A straight line from the center of the runway’s north end to the hospital would cover about 2 miles. My mum says that after I was born I cried incessantly, and the only thing that would soothe me was the screech of aircraft as they passed overhead. My first word was “avión”, Spanish for airplane. With this in mind, it came as no surprise to my family when toy airplanes became the toys I cherished the most.
The Approach to Toncontin Airport. The hospital where I was born is about 2 miles behind where this picture was taken. Photo credit to William Decker.
I liked every kind and brand of model plane, but had a particular fondness (granted, obsession) for models of Honduras’s national carrier, SAHSA. Planes in a Honduran airline’s colors are not exactly in high demand, so there wasn’t anyone making the planes other than the airline itself. They had models custom made for them by a model maker in Miami, then used them as displays in their local offices and in travel agencies. My grandfather was a stakeholder in the airline, so armed with that and the help of my charming smile I saw to it that a considerable amount of these models found their way into my possession. Back then (early 90’s) the models should have been about 75 bucks a pop, but considering SAHSA went bankrupt in 1994 they are virtually priceless now.
Model SAHSA Boeing 727 courtesy of ModelBuffs.com
Gary Cross mentions in the first paragraph of page 37 in “Modern Children, Modern Toys” (course packet page 55) that
“Toys were both vehicles to introduce the ‘real world’ and fantasy objects shut off from that world in the child’s ‘secret garden’.”
This perfectly sums up my experiences with my model planes. My playtime consisted of this: I would set up two “airports” on opposite tables across a room. I envisioned the floor as an ocean, and both the tables represented islands. I would then proceed to micromanage each “airport” using my imagination and my recollection of airport infrastructure. Each plane would “land” at an airport, then would be given time to unload its passengers on “stairs” (Honduras didn’t have jet ways at the time); the cargo would be taken to the imaginary terminal (usually a box of cereal lying flat), the jet would be refueled, new passengers loaded, then it would take off once again with the other “island” as its destination. As Cross mentioned above, I was in my own world of sorts, however I tried to make that world as similar to the real world as possible. During my playtime I did more than just mimic the real world though; I began to understand it. I realized why airplanes used radios to communicate with a control tower one day when I attempted to land one of my jets while another was just lining up with the runway for takeoff. Something that was easy for me to fix there, but would likely end in a horrifying accident in the real world. Through having a line of models waiting to unload their passengers as a result of me not balancing out the arrivals and departures, I realized why airlines’ timescales were so dependent on the efficiency of many moving parts. Keeping track of how many routes a particular plane had flown that day taught me to add. Balancing the routes flown so that all my “fleet” participated equally taught me to multiply, divide, and subtract. To quote Cross, I was learning “how to be productive through purposive play” (course packet, page 55). The creation of my own little world in which I could move all the pieces without any repercussions ultimately allowed me the freedom to understand and thus prepare for the world ahead on my terms. At least the airline world…
The original line of historical "American Girl" dolls.
When I was little, one of my favorite book series was the American Girl series. This collection of chapter books followed the lives of several young girls from different time periods and classes in American history – all hinging upon the common denominator of their titular national identity and exploring the story directly through the girls’ viewpoints. These books were created chiefly to advertise to children (more specifically girls) the line of character dolls upon which the American Girl company was originally built, in the same vein of such toy lines as Transformers and My Little Pony. Selling for upwards of a hundred dollars (and initially only available by mail-order) when you factor in toy accessories and doll dress-up, the American Girl dolls were expensive enough to require additional persuasion in the form of books, movies, and even games. After all, parental resistance in the face of cost to satisfying a child’s preference for a particular character or story tends to wane the more enamored the child becomes with the pageantry of a full product line.
Santa and Kmart save the day for cash-strapped consumers
Recent economic trends in this stalling economy have seen the resurgence of layaway programs throughout the U.S.’s major retailers. This phenomenon is described here in this ABCNews article:
The underlying theme to all of this is the fact that even in times of economic woe and recession, consumers still have to get their shopping craze in for the holidays. Retailers like Kmart and Walmart have had to reformat their business trends to match the lack of spending money many consumers are facing. Veblen’s theory of vicarious consumption still powers consumers to go forth and spend, especially at Christmas time, because it has become embedded in middle-class American culture. Consumers are defying their interests because of the norm of Christmas time spending. Layaway, once left to the dustbin of history and outmoded shopping models, is back to accommodate these new trends. Though the U.S. economy is suffering in many ways, ways it hasn’t for some time, the phenomenon and expectation of the commercialization of Christmas, and the newly refounded layaway programs, keeps consumer spending up. This flies in the face of many consumers best interests. Vicarious consumption proves to the consumer, however, that things are still normal and people are still doing well.
When loving middle and upper-class parents decide to satisfy every material desire of their offspring around the holidays, they are also seizing an opportunity to show off their hard-earned wealth to friends and neighbors. How else would a well-to-do businessman let everyone know how hard he has worked other than showering his kids with the latest and greatest toys money can buy during the time of year when indulgence and consumption are as prevalent as chilly weather?
Gary Cross asserts that the holiday spirit of giving is only a veil that covers the true motives behind excessive consumption during the holidays. Parents spoil their children on Christmas to display the “personal affluence” that the American dream explicitly offers (59). The desire to display wealth and success is an innate characteristic of people living in affluent communities. While there might be many reasons behind a rich man buying a flashy car, it can always be assumed that because he doesn’t buy a modest car, he wants to look rich. But parents can’t constantly allow their children to indulge in an endless supply of toys; that would look sinful. Parents use the loophole commonly known as Christmas to achieve their desire to display wealth without seeming vicarious, simply because everyone else does it. The idea that Christmas is a time for “eating, drinking, and loafing” plays into the idea that spoiling children during the holidays is socially acceptable (59).
The argument in which this assertion is being made, however, is not black and white. While I advocate Cross’ belief that parents spoil their children on Christmas for the sake of an affluent appearance, I am not saying that a wealthy father can’t buy his daughter the finest doll on the market only because he loves her. But Cross’ argument is a generalization that is meant to pertain to society as a whole. Within the masses of affluent people in this country who give tons of gifts to their children for the sake of appearance lies a pocket of parents who give for love and for love only. These individuals have been, what a Bill Murray fan might call, Scrooged; individuals who, due to particular experiences and circumstances, give for the sake of giving. From this one can conclude that an ideal society contains a significant amount of Scrooged parents and a much smaller population of those who give for the sake of appearances.
Our discussion and reading of marketing toys directly to children made me consider advertisments that I was exposed to growing up. Almost all of these advertisements for toys, movies, and video games were directed at children and not at adults, a development that Gary Cross finds originated in the early twentieth century., citing a 1913 article in Toys and Novelties that advocated marketing to children “to cause their wonderment, their desire for ownership and their immediate pleas.” (52)
This marketing tenet seems to still hold true in advertising toward the very end of the 20th century, as exemplified by these advertisements between children’s programming on Nickelodeon in 1999, specifically the two Star Wars ads. I remember the first one specifically because it advertised the connection of two things very dear to my seven-year-old self: Star Wars and Legos. These advertisements were crafted specfically to run on a children’s network and are completely geared toward the imagination and playfulness of a child audience. There are no adults buying or giving toys to children, just children playing within the “Star Wars universe,” fulfilling their own desires to be a part of a galaxy far, far away.
Cross states that “toy companies recognized that in an era of growing permissiveness, children had influence of parent’s spending,” and cites this as a cause for marketing to shift towards children. Although this may be the origin of this idea, I believe that the increase in media consumption of American youth in the pass few decades has been the most significant factor in the use and success of advertisements geared directly toward children. The source of this clip shows this phenomenon, as the almost entirely youth-oriented Nickelodeon television network, a relatively new media development, enables advertisement blocks to directly target younger demographics. As mass media has spread throughout all facets of American life, advertisement has been able to capitalize on very precise niches that in ways that it couldn’t’ one hundred years ago.
One of my favorite T.V. shows throughout my childhood was the Power Rangers. The series started in 1993 and shortly after become a nationwide phenomenon with many different toys and costumes for children. It started as a series in Japan and Americans then adapted in in 1993 to become a show on the Fox network. It has many different series that have played throughout the years but they all revolve around the same concept. Power Rangers is a superhero show that consists of a few young normal people who are trained to become super heros and fight villains. They transform and fight as a team wearing suits and helmets. For 3 years in a row I dressed as the pink Power Ranger for halloween and many other kids I know would dress up as Power Rangers and we would play fight at the playground. The costumes range in price from around $20-30.
The Power Rangers became a huge pop culture icon throughout the 1990’s. In class discussion, we tried to define pop culture and what can be classified as pop culture. I think pop culture can be different depending upon where you live and the society you are in, but is something that a large majority of people can identify with. The creators of Power Rangers were very smart when trying to decide how to target a broad range of children. By creating characters that appeal to both girls and boys the target market can double. If you look at a lot of toys or television shows geared for children they typically tend to appeal towards one gender or the other. Power Rangers used color and characters to appeal to both. Power Rangers was a big part of my childhood and created unity on the playground for boys and girls alike to wear their different costumes to school and fight the villains of the playground.
