The Marketing of Children’s Toys: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Consumer Culture

✍ Scribed by Rebecca C. Hains (editor), Nancy A. Jennings (editor)

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021
Tongue: English
Leaves: 312
Edition: 1st ed. 2021
Category: Library

No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.

✦ Synopsis

This book offers rich critical perspectives on the marketing of a variety of toys, brands, and product categories. Topics include marketing undertaken by specific children’s toy brands such as American Girl, Barbie, Disney, GoldieBlox, Fisher-Price, and LEGO, and marketing trends characterizing broader toy categories such as on-trend grotesque toys; toy firearms; minimalist toys; toyetics; toys meant to offer diverse representation; STEM toys; and unboxing videos. Toy marketing warrants a sustained scholarly critique because of toys’ cultural significance and their roles in children’s lives, as well as the industry’s economic importance. Discourses surrounding toys―including who certain toys are meant for and what various toys and brands can signify about their owners’ identities―have implications for our understandings of adults’ expectations of children and of broader societal norms into which children are being socialized.

✦ Table of Contents

Preface
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
Chapter 1: Critiquing Children’s Consumer Culture: An Introduction to The Marketing of Children’s Toys
The Rise of Toys and Children’s Consumer Culture
The Toy Industry: Status and Criticisms
Critical Perspectives on Toy Marketing and Consumer Culture
Chapters
Conclusion
References
Chapter 2: Playing with Fire: Marketing Youth Toy and Working Firearms as Social Problem and Social Panacea
Toys Guns and Youth Firearms as Morally Controversial Leisure
Bull’s-Eye: Early Trends in the Marketing of Toy and Youth Firearms
Trigger Warning: Support for Toy Guns Wanes After the 1960s
Blurring the Lines Between Toys and Tools: Contemporary Firearms Culture and Regulation
Current Trends in Toy Gun and Youth Firearm Marketing: Transforming a Social Problem into a Social Panacea
New Products: The Increasing Commercial Availability of Non-powder Firearms
Toy Gun Realism and Fanciful Youth Rifles
A Textual Analysis of Exhibitor Promotional Materials at the 2019 NRA Annual Convention
Relationality and Knowledge
Fun
Realism
Conclusion
References
Chapter 3: Reclaiming the Living Room: The Play Value of Grotesque Toys
Reading Revolt
Plastigoop, Pustules, and Gak
Analysis
Discussion: Embracing the Grotesque and Abject
Conclusion
References
Chapter 4: Playing with Minimalism: How Parents Are Sold on High-End Toys and Childhood Simplicity
Feminine Labor, “mommy blogging,” “mommy minimalism”
The “Instagram Look” and Keeping the Perfect Home
The Appearance of Simplicity: Conscious Consumerism and Conspicuous Consumption
Purchasing Simplicity at a Premium: Toy Companies and the Rhetoric of Selling Minimalism
Purchasing Freedom from Desire: Spirituality and Time
Reflection
References
Chapter 5: Imported Toys in Indonesia: Parental Consumer Literacy, Purchasing Decisions, and Globalization
Literature Review
Globalization
Literacy
Findings
Consumption Literacy in Two Generations of Parents
Parents’ Views Regarding the Classification of Types of Toys
Parents’ Preferences for Imported Toys
Conclusion
References
Chapter 6: Unwrapping Toy TV: Ryan’s World and the Toy Review Genre’s Impact on Children’s Culture
Toy Review Channels: A YouTube Genre
Toy Influencers: From YouTube to Mainstream Media
Ryan’s World: Toy Reviewer and Child Influencer
Literature Review
Talking About Television and Toys
Scholarship on Children’s Toy Review Videos
Method and Sample
Ryan’s World: From Toy Box to Television
A Surprise Success: The Early Days of Ryan’s World
Developing and Diversifying: Centering Character
Pocket.watch, Licensing, and the Product-Based YouTube Channel
The Transmedia YouTube Star: Ryan on TV and Game Consoles
Toy Review Channels Beyond the Toy: Expanding Influencer Identity
Conclusion
References
Chapter 7: Toys That Train the Tots: Fisher-Price’s Smart Toys in the Digital Age
The Toy Industry and the Allure of Smart Toys
Fisher-Price and the Digital Commodification of Educational Play
Case Studies: Product, Marketing, and Customer Review Analysis
Linkimals: Smart Toys for Babies
Laugh & Learn: Smart Toys for Toddlers
Think & Learn: Smart Toys for Preschoolers and Kindergarteners
Discussion
Conclusion
References
Chapter 8: Commodifying Culture: Mattel’s and Disney’s Marketing Approaches to “Latinx” Toys and Media
Trials and Errors: Mattel and Disney Do “Diversity”
Latinidad Around the World
Ambiguous and Amalgamated Latinidad
Trademarking Traditions and Historical Figures
Conclusion
References
Chapter 9: A Toy for Thoughtful Parents: The Rhetorical Building Blocks of LEGO’s Reputation
Building a Reputation
Creative Toys and Cultural Capital
Safely Nurturing Creativity in the Samsonite Era
The Golden Age of LEGO
LEGO: Friends or Frenemies?
Relying on Reputation
Giving Girls What They Want
Conclusion
References
Chapter 10: “Smart Is the New Cool”: Project MC2 and the Marketing of STEM Lifestyles to Tween Girl
Project Retail Shelf Space
Livin’ the STEM Life
References
Chapter 11: Hacking Girl Power: GoldieBlox Play Sets and Material Rhetoric
STEM and GoldieBlox as Text
GoldieBlox, Girl Power, and Criticism
Material Rhetoric and Toys
Analysis
Reframing Girlishness
Building an Apprenticeship
Conclusion
References
Chapter 12: Toy Discourses and Gendered Roles in “The Most Gender Equal Country in the World”: A Critical Cultural Analysis of Norwegian Toy Catalogues from 2011 to 2018
Theoretical Approach: A Critical Cultural Perspective on Toy Catalogues
Gender Equality and the Norwegian Context
Methodological Approach
Limitations
Analysis and Discussion
Conclusions
References
Chapter 13: Unpacking Logan: The Construction of Masculinity in the American Girl Boy Doll
American Girl Brand Identity
Literature Review
Method
Product Development: Product Design
Product Development: Narrative Construction
Audience Reception: Logan’s Place in the World of American Girl
Conclusion
References
Chapter 14: The Politics of Barbie’s Curvy New Body: Marketing Mattel’s Fashionistas Line
Barbie: An Early History
Feminist Scholars Challenge Barbie
Barbie in the 2000s: A Changing Marketplace
Mattel’s Launch of the Fashionistas and Curvy Barbie: An Analysis
A Focus on the Curves
The Politics of “Fat”
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index

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