Notes

The Great Bratz Debate
Bratz have already been an enormous phenomenon in the toy industry for years. Now, with the upcoming Bratz movie, the brand is set to become, if possible, even more widely recognized.

However, there's been a debate for quite a while over the suitability of Bratz as a toy for young children. The argument has raged across the world, and contains left parents and care-givers with an extremely difficult choice to make. Do they allow Bratz to their households or do they risk incurring their children's wrath by denying them the toy that 'everyone has'.

MGA Entertainment will tell you that their dolls are targeted at the 8-12 year old market. Experience shows, however, that children of a much younger age, often only 4 or 5 years old are attracted to the brand.

Marketing Experts talk of a phenomenon, that they call Kids GROWING OLDER Younger. They appear to believe that firstly that is a fact of today's world, secondly it's not an issue and thirdly that they are merely reflecting this within their brands rather than in lots of ways being responsible for the trend. get more info of blame, our children are more sophisticated than ever before. Even so, does the Bratz brand promote values that any parent will be happy for a twelve year old to experience, let alone a child of four?

From the outset, a word that you will hear used time and time again in the marketing of Bratz is 'Sassy'. Leaving aside, for an instant, that this may be the toy industry's favorite euphemism for 'sexy', what does the dictionary tell us concerning the word 'sassy'? Impudent, improperly forward or bold, rude and disrespectful. Any child psychologist will let you know that doll play can be an extremely important part of a kid learning appropriate behavior for true to life. Are these actually the values you want to teach our children?

The blatant commercialism of Bratz also causes many parents to baulk. Children are taught by Bratz that the most important things in a girl's life are appearance, make-up, clothes, boys and dating. This encourages them to skip the important developmental stages of middle childhood and travel right to the pre-occupations of an adolescent world, creating a new generation of good little consumers along the way.

Of course, it isn't all bad. Bratz will be the first fashion dolls to market in virtually any numbers that move from the 'white and blonde' clich� of Cindy and Barbie, supplying dolls with a mixture of ethnicities. They also have slightly more realistic figures than their predecessors. Friendship is one value which is positive and is ever present in descriptions of the dolls.

However most likely the biggest criticism created by parents of Bratz is their clothing. Previously, Bratz dolls have appeared in miniskirts, fishnet stockings, and feather boas. Needless to say, children will inevitably wish to copy. Whilst discussing this issue of the sexualization of young children, the American Psychological Association were heavily critical of Bratz. They stated that evidence showed that this sort of sexualization had a poor impact on a girl's self-confidence, body image, self-esteem, sexual development and mental health.

Needless to say, MGA Entertainment will tell you that it's around the individual parent to choose if Bratz dolls are suitable for their kids. However, so called Children's Marketing Gurus have been teaching another philosophy for a long period. They tell the toy companies simply not to be worried about whether or not parents like their products. Just pitch at the youngsters, and allow nagging factor do the rest.

Whatever you decide to do as a parent, it's a tough choice. Good luck!

Duncan Conner is Managing Director of Bus Stop Toy Shop. Possibly the smallest toy shop on the planet in the small Scottish town of Largs. He's also a big kid himself. Go to the Bus Stop Toy Shop website at:
Website: http://tupalo.com/en/users/4246313