When I was a kid growing up in the 1980s, I used to love my toy commercials. Mixed in with my Saturday morning cartoons, my big bowl of Fruit Loops, and my Pound Puppy by my side, it was the perfect way to waste away the day. My mother may have frowned at the toy companies for making me say, “I want that,” about six times an hour, but I didn’t care. I just wanted toys. Everything from G.I. Joe’s and Transformers to Hot Wheels and WWF action figures. Mine, mine, mine!
The fact is, though, that toy commercials have been entertaining kids, and making parents groan, since 1952. While they may have evolved over the years, the core of them remains the same. Show some kids playing with the toy as it does some cool thing with a missile, hair brush, or while it stretches two-feet long; have some fun music playing in the background and show said children laughing and having fun. It’s quite simple, and it works. It did for me, anyway. I was knee deep in Thundercats and wrestlers by the time I was eight.
Of course, we can’t forget about one of the best toys there ever was and still is.
It’s simple, provides hours of entertainment, makes you laugh, and in the early 1950′s it was the first toy to ever have its own commercial.
On April 30, 1952, Mr. Potato Head from Hasbro was the first ever toy advertised on television. In the first year, it sold over one million kits at $0.98 cents a pop. Then Mrs. Potato Head came along in 1953 and the rest, as they say, is history. Even though Mr. Potato Head has certainly changed over the years, the design still remains the same, and that, my friends, is the sign of a great toy.
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