Monday, October 1, 2007

Marketing Madness

It's that time of year again...the early marketing push by toy companies, telling your children what they want for the holidays. Every commercial on Nickelodeon is followed by "I want that!" by at least one of my kids. My oldest tells me if it's on TV, that means she needs it and I have to buy it. Good thing for her, her parents have a good sense of humor. Recently it backfired on her though, as there was an oatmeal commercial on. For some reason she won't eat it. We told her we had to buy it, because after all, it was on TV!

I wonder what it must be like to be the child of a marketing executive for a toy company. Imagine seeing pictures of all those cool toys. Do they get free ones? And what if a Fisher-Price marketing rep has a daughter into Disney Princess? Does he/she cringe when their daughter begs for the Ariel Talking Salon? Do they stand in line for hours and shell out the rediculous full price for plastic like the rest of us? Does it kill them to know how much the markup probably is?
Not surprisingly, I've received Fisher-Price, Lego, and My Twinn doll catalogues in the mail this week. Invariably my children always want the most expensive item in it. *sigh*