Pink the color of Christmas this year
Toy makers and toy retailer Toys “R” Us Inc. are banking on pink as the new green this Christmas.
Manufacturers such as Hasbro Inc. and Fisher-Price have created all-pink, girl-oriented versions of classics such as Monopoly and the Lil’ People School Bus, and Toys “R” Us has made sure its shelves are stocked with those products.
“For the holiday season, Toys ‘R’ Us owns the color pink,” said Bob Giampietro, senior vice president of trends and innovation for the retailer.
Toys “R” Us buyers about a year ago began encouraging manufacturers to develop toys that would tap into a newly strong passion for pink on the part of young girls and their parents.
Several manufacturers created exclusive, pink-themed products for Toys “R” Us. For example, Hasbro is selling its “Think Pink” collection: girlie versions of Monopoly, Jenga and Twister.
The “pink” Monopoly set is packaged in a box designed to look like a jewelry box, and lets players go shopping or pay off their cell phone bills with their Monopoly money.
The Twister game comes with a plush pink carrying case. The Jenga wooden block stacking game has been reinvented as Jenga Girl Talk, with pink blocks printed with questions like “Who is your best friend?”
Toys “R” Us has extended the pink theme to some of its private-label merchandise, such as its “Totally Me” makeup kit with pink packaging and lipsticks and eye shadows in various shades of – you guessed it – pink.
Electronics manufacturers have also pounced on the pink bandwagon with digital cameras, computers and CD players with pink metallic cases.
Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine, said manufacturers are responding to a trend that surfaced a year ago, when a pink laptop computer by Hong Kong company VTech “did exceptionally well.”
“When you think girls, you think purple and pink,” Silver said.
The pink Monopoly has received some knocks in the media for implying that girls want to shop and chat on their cell phones while boys run the railroads and utility companies found in the traditional Monopoly game.
Stevanne Auerbach, a toy consultant who operates the “Dr. Toy” Web site and is the author of “Smart Play, Smart Toys,” said getting girls to play games is a good goal.
“I’m not sure that girls need pink, per se, to make them play games more,” she said via e-mail. “But if games are designed to encourage girls to play them, tweaked to make them user friendly, I think it’s a good idea.”
Giampietro maintains that pink is not just for girls.
“When you look at some of the electronic items, with brushed metal finishes of pink, anyone could carry that,” he said.
“When you look at it, it doesn’t even smack of girls, it smacks of cool metallic colors.”