Topics include marketing undertaken by specific children’s toy brands such as American Girl, Barbie, Disney, GoldieBlox, Fisher-Price, and LEGO, and marketing trends characterizing broader toy categories such as on-trend grotesque toys;

Introduction.- Rebecca C. Hains & Nancy A. Jennings.-SECTION ONE: TOY TRENDS.- 1.       Toying with Guns: A Critical Analysis of Play Firearms.- Jody Lynée Madeira, Professor of Law and Louis F Niezer Faculty Fellow, Indiana University Maurer School of Law.- 2.        Reclaiming the Livingroom: The Play Value of Grotesque Toys.- Tyler Brunette, Ph.D. student, University of Pittsburgh, the Department of Communication.- 3.       Playing with Minimalism: The Promotion of High-End Toys and Childhood Simplicity.- Spring-Serenity Duvall, Associate Professor of Communication, Salem College.- 4.       Imported Toys in Indonesia: Parental Consumer Literacy, Purchase Decisions, and Globalization.- Rani Chandra Oktaviani and Fadlin Nur Ichwan, Lecturers, TheLondon School of Public Relations, Jakarta.- SECTION TWO: TOY MARKETING.- 5.       Totally Toyetic.- Jonathon Lundy, Ph.D. Candidate, Drexel University.- 6.       Unwrapping Toy TV: YouTube Kids and the role of Toy Unboxing and Play Videos.- Kyra Hunting, Assistant Professor, Media Arts and Studies, The University of Kentucky.- 7.       Disney Toy Marketing Addresses Latina/os.- Diana Leon-Boys and Angharad N. Valdivia, Research Professor, Institute of Communications Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.- 8.  A Toy for Thoughtful Parents:  Explaining the Rhetorical Origins of the American Public’s Love for LEGO.- Lauren DeLaCruz, Ph.D. Candidate, Rhetoric and Public Culture, Northwestern University.- SECTION THREE: TOYS AND GENDER.- 9. “Smart is the New Cool”: Project MC2 and the Marketing of STEM Lifestyles to Tween Girls.- Avi Santo, Chair, Department of Communications & Theater Arts, Old Dominion University.- 10. Hacking Girl Power: GoldieBlox and Material Rhetoric.- Margeaux Lippman Hoskins, Lecturer, Dutchess Community College, Poughkeepsie, NY.- 11. Toy discourses and gendered roles in “the most gender equal country in the world”: A critical cultural analysis of toy catalogues from 2011-2018.- Trine Kvidal-Røvik, Associate Professor, Department.- Tourism and Northern Studies, The Arctic University of Norway.- 12. American Girl and the Construction of Masculinity.- Emilie Zaslow, Associate Professor, Pace University, New York.- 13. The Politics of Barbie’s Curvy New Body: Marketing Mattel’s “Fashionista” Line.- Rebecca Hains, Professor of Media and Communication, Salem State University.

“This book offers an exceptional insight into the everyday life of the child through their toys. The volume expertly unpacks the phenomena of our current toy culture are and decodes its hidden marketing messages.” (Dr. Maya Götz, Head of the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television at the Bayerischer Rundfunk)“a diverse collection that critically examines different lines of toys and their role in consumer culture, and how they are intertwined with children’s socialization processes. I am impressed by the diversity of the topics, as well as the diversity of the authors in terms of seniority, gender, institution affiliation and the inclusion of perspectives from outside the US.” (Dafna Lemish, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers University and Founding Editor of the Journal of Children and Media) “The Marketing of Children’s Toys is a remarkably comprehensive collection of original essays that shine a bright light on the many ways in whichthe toy industry tactically markets its wares to kids—American, Indonesian, Latinx, and others elsewhere (like Norway). The contributors’ skillful examinations of brands, branders (as well as influencers) range from the macro to the micro, the nursery room to the global marketplace, cultural discourses to digital media play, girlhood to boyhood, toddlers to teenagers, gender stereotyping to grotesque gross-out toys and more. Essays on guns and dolls, among many other topics together employ cultural studies theories and methods of analysis. These skillful interrogations of market categories as well as particular brands, are sure to contribute importantly to scholarships on the commercialization of play, playthings, and children’s cultures, and to the research and teaching of Children’s Studies, Girls’ Studies, Media Studies, and Dolls’ Studies scholars.” (Miriam Forman-Brunell, Emerita Professor of History, Women’s & Gender Studies, University of Missouri-Kansas City, is the author ofMade to Play House: Dolls and the Commercialization of American Girlhood, 1830-1930 and Deconstructing Dolls: Girlhoods and the Meanings of Play)  

Addresses a crucial gap in scholarship by offering a rich critical perspective on a variety of toys, brands, and marketing techniques. Explores our understandings of adults’ expectations of children and of broader societal norms into which children are being socialized. Includes key suggestions and points for consideration of relevance to those working in the marketing field.

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