Fri, 30 Dec 2005

Did competition dash Barbie's holiday dreams?

Having raised three girls in the 80's, I've seen more than enough of Barbie and her ilk - and yes, I made rather merciless fun of her plastic, wholesome, non-anatomically correct beauty. But this bit still troubles me ... folks who watch this market carefully are seeing what I would consider to be some disturbing trends, despite the fact that this years downturn for Barbie was due mostly to competition from other dolls:

AG Edwards analyst Tim Conder thinks Barbie's problem goes beyond the challenge from Bratz. "No doubt Bratz have taken significant market share from Barbie in the last three to four years. But I think changing consumer trends could put Bratz in the same situation down the road."

According to Conder, the traditional toy business overall is in for turbulent times ahead as kids at an earlier age show a preference for gadgets like cellphones, iPods and videogames.

"Boys don't want to play with GI Joe and young girls are moving away from Barbie," he said.

Electronic toys, including animated dolls like the 'Amazing Amanda' mentioned in this article, do not require the child the use any imagination - in fact, they almost demand that the kid not imagine at all, by supplying nearly every kind of behavior available in their "target" toy. No need to pretend Amazing Amanda is hungry - she'll cry and tell you she's hungry!

Kids can still find workarounds for this kind of directed behavior today, but as these devices get more sophisticated, look out! "Play pretend" could become a quaint relic of a time long past.

Imagination is crucial to the later development of the creative, artistic impulses - deny or repress a child's imagination and, well, who knows? This is something that is a new thing: no culture heretofore has ever tried to do this en masse, to boys and girls, rich and poor, not even wild-eyed fundamentalist religious zealots. And I'm not sure, given the pace with which our society moves and technology advances, that there's anything we could do about it, even were we to decide we wanted to.

If Mattel was hoping that Princess Barbie and Fairytopia Barbie -- its two big doll initiatives for 2005 -- would light a fire under sagging Barbie sales over the holidays, the toymaker may be in for another rude awakening.

(link) [CNN.com]

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