Mattel may be accused of a lot of things, but they're not stupid. This silhouette was released as a "tease" to the unveiling of a new interactive doll aimed at 5-to-8-year old kids. It will come with a USB port to take kids online and into an alternate reality where Dora is 10 years old and living in the city with new friends. Bye bye, Backpack and Boots, hello Downtown and Dating, right?Not so fast.
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But the tease may have backfired. Newspapers started calling her Dora-No-More-ah and posting their own pictures of what she'd look like (and getting it wrong), while mommy bloggers called her Dora the $&#@!. Mainstream media outlets like Entertainment Weekly asked, "Is the new 'Dora the Explorer' doll too sexy?". When Entertainment Weekly thinks you crossed the line you really crossed the line.
Yet all this was based on the now infamous silhouette. When the "tween" Dora was unveiled ahead of schedule to calm fears and nip the bad buzz in the bud, she had clothes on, (thank you very much). She wears a tunic and leggings, not a mini-skirt, as was feared. You could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from parents.
But there will be more "aging characters" in toys/children's entertainment. The popular series Ben-10 on the Cartoon Network has adapted to the changing tastes of kids as well. Last year Ben 10: Alien Force was launched. The show is set five years after the original series and Ben is five years older. Parents may ask, "Why? Mickey Mouse didn't age. What gives?"Walt didn't have to deal with age compression.
Girls as old as 16 used to play with Barbie dolls. Now they are done with her at 10 and Mattel fears that even that age is dropping. View-Master reels were enjoyed by teenagers in the 1960s. Remember The Monkees, Lost in Space, Flipper? They all were featured in View-Master reels and teens loved them. Today View-Master is strictly a pre-school toy. Simply put? Kids want more sophisticated playthings at an earlier age. For parents who lament the fact that their kids are growing up too fast, this is a sad reality.
So Tween Dora is a creative answer to age compression. A girl who would have turned 7 or 8 and slowly left Dora behind, will now follow her online and into the city, while her little sister still has the original Dora on TV. Or at least that's what Mattel and Nickelodeon hope.
As a parent, I don't like change, but as a toy designer, I understand it. I just hope I never live to see Arthur in High School or George Curious about puberty.
Let a kid, be a kid.
2 comments:
The smart part of me (it's suppressed, but there) gets all of the marketing theory behind the slow leak of the new Dora and even theory behind the creation of the new doll. But the rest of me is disappointed and even offended by the whole thing. And it's not because I'm a particularly concerned parent (I've copped to the fact that my toddler has inherited a vast - and inappropriate- knowledge of pokemon from her older siblings). It's more that I feel duped, like the product was switched on me (and my daughter) after we've already bought in. What's more is I can't see how this whole thing is necessary for Dora, there are plenty of other established brands for mattel to focus on in the tween category. I wouldn't be surprised, if in this age of the ever-hovering, ever involved (clearly bored) parent, this marketing plan blows up in mattel's face... maybe the lesson here is that parents are paying more attention than ever before and parents hold grudges much longer than the kids they're buying for.
I would assuage your fear by saying that the original Dora will still be on TV in her original incarnation. The reason they chose her is the same reason why they'd never "replace" her with this new version, she's hugely popular. If it was a true "bait and switch," it would kill the brand. I do agree with you that the whole thing might backfire, but if the 10 year old Dora is as wholesome and inquisitive as they make her sound, she should be appealing to parents and kids, especially if they have short-term memory in regards to that silhouette and all the brouhaha that followed. Thanks for commenting, Sarah.
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