It’s devil’s advocate day here, as I try to flush out my bias and take a centrist point of view on the cartoon character facelift conundrum, exploring ‘then and now’ from a sociological perspective, with a bit more analysis from yesterday's post on my own marketing background in terms of branding overhauls. After all, Pooh Bear got a makeover. So did Mickey. Popeye. Charlie … [Read more...]
Manga Makeovers and Other Body Image Cartoon Capers (Part 2)
Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Nutrition & Wellness, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth, Stereotypes & Diversity Tagged With: Anime, Avatars, Betty-Boop, cartoons, Comics, DDR, Disney-Princesses, Early-Sexualization, Facelifts, Female-Action-Heroes, Gender, Lara-Croft-Tomb-Raider, Manga, Nancy-Drew, Powerpuff-Girls, Sailor-Moon, Sho-Murase, Stardoll, Zwinky
Facelifts for Kiddie Characters: Rebranding ’80s Icons?
Last week’s New York Times article on 21st century ‘facelifts’ for kiddie characters gave me the willies on a variety of fronts, despite the fact that I’ve personally ‘freshened’ many a brand in my time. From Peanuts to Barbie, I 'get' that mega-brands need to stay au courant... I’ve admittedly had a hard time tapping into specific analysis of what’s irking me most about … [Read more...]
Filed Under: Advertising, Branding & Consumerism, Consumerism, Growing up too soon, Marketing Shaping Youth, Media Literacy, Sexualization & Body Image, Shaping Youth Tagged With: Angelina-Ballerina, Animation, Anime, Barbie, Betty-Boop, Care-Bears, cartoons, Celluloid, Disney, Icons, Jessica-Rabbit, Kids, Loonatics, Manga, Mattel, Media, New-York-Times-, NYT, Peanuts, Pop-Culture, pop-culture-icons, Robyn-Silverman, Strawberry-Shortcake, Toys, Who-Framed-Roger-Rabbit, Youth-Media