In a deal announced just this week, Hasbro licensed British company Bamboo Bamboo to create limited-edition children’s bamboo dinnerware featuring Peppa Pig, sold online. Bamboo dinnerware has been available for a long time, and is billed as eco-friendly as well as safe, durable, lightweight, and easy to clean. With the increased attention on sustainability over […]
Tag Archives | Paw Patrol
On-Screen Representation
Children’s entertainment properties, particularly television series, are increasingly including characters with visible disabilities—that is, they use wheelchairs, leg braces, or crutches—as part of the main friend group portrayed on screen. They are shown living their everyday lives and participating fully in the group’s activities, modeling inclusion and normalizing disabilities for young viewers. Some examples: MixMups […]
Characters Help Kids Relax for the Vax
Demand for most of the COVID-specific licensed products that came on the market early in the pandemic—masks, hand sanitizer, distancing signage, and the like—has declined, even as the crisis continues to drag on. And there have been few new COVID-driven licensing deals forged of late. That said, new developments in the ever-changing COVID landscape offer […]
Talking Turkey
The U.S. holiday of Thanksgiving is one of the few celebration days throughout the year with relatively little licensing activity tied to it. It is a holiday centered on gratitude, food, and family, and not on extensive gift giving, costumes, decorating, or other more commercial endeavors. That said, there are a few opportunities tied to […]
The Numbers Are In
The toy industry is having a good year in 2021, as measured by the major public toy companies’ quarterly results to date. Some observers had thought industry growth would slow in 2021 after a significant bump in dollar sales in 2020, fueled by the need to keep families occupied during the COVID lockdowns. In addition, […]
Listen Up
Children’s podcasts have been popping up for a while now, including a few based on licensed IP. Almost a third of parents (32%) say they are very or somewhat likely to purchase a subscription to a paid podcast service for their child, according to a survey conducted by Morning Consult in November. Half of children […]
Pet Projects
The pet category has long been an active one for licensing deals and collaborations in the U.S., and new agreements are still being announced regularly, despite the crowded landscape. Recently, there has been a burst of activity outside the U.S., with new partnerships coming to light in the last several months across the globe: In […]
More Visibility for Disability
By Karen Raugust on March 16, 2020 in Character/Entertainment, Demographic groups, Licensing, Toys/Games
Over the past several years there has been a focus on diversity and inclusion of all types in advertising, content, and consumer products. The introduction of characters with physical and mental disabilities has been a recent manifestation of this trend, with more and more examples in the toy and children’s entertainment industries, especially in the […]
Gender-Blind Basics
Licensing deals involving unisex lines of apparel, which are designed in such a way that they fit and appeal to both genders, have been on the rise for some time, and the trend seems to be accelerating. Agreements typically focus on t-shirts, sweatshirts, jackets, and other basic items, although they can extend beyond that. Some […]
The Evolution of Preschool Licensing
From 2012 to 2014, the TV-driven preschool portion of the character/entertainment licensing market was thriving, even as properties for many other demographics at the time faced continued challenges. Disney dominated store shelves with products tied to its Disney Junior shows (especially Doc McStuffins and later Sofia the First). Properties from other big players such as […]