When I was in the military I had a friend whom loved the show Sponge Bob Square Pants.  One year as a joke I threw her a Sponge themed Birthday party.  I wanted to get as much Sponge Bob merchandise as I could for the Birthday theme.  I bought a Sponge Bob cake complete with the figures of Sponge Bob and his trusty sidekick Patrick.  There were the party hats, the video game, the movie.  As well as the Sponge Bob coloring books and even sponge toothpaste with the Sponge Bob tooth brush.  Not to mention the Sponge Bob wrapping paper.   There was so much Sponge Bob stuff out there is would have cost a fortune to buy it all.  That is about as recent as I get when it comes to “current” kid shows.  It’s easy to design an existing product around a popular kids show. 

                I am a product of the 1980’s, I remember one of my top favorite kid show of that era was the cartoon based on the movie Ghostbusters.  Back in the 80’s marketers had to be a little more creative with how they reached kids.  If you have asked me in 1986 why there was a cartoon called “The Real Ghostbusters”  I would have said it was because the movie was so cool they wanted to keep the story going.  Now that I’m older I know better.  Much like Sponge Bob it was very easy to have a Ghostbusters themed part.  I remember this disgusting gum that came in a tube like toothpaste but is was not even remotely good for your teeth.  It was slime flavored gum and it earned its name.  There was even a juice box called ecto cooler that was once again slime related.  They must have had hundreds of different types of action figures, even toys of characters who never made it on the show.

                So the only big difference between then and now is the internet, beyond that the 80's was the birth of oversaturation it was the decade when it really took effect and it has been a growing empire ever since.  The genius (if you look at it that way) is it doesn't matter what the product really is, all they need to do is slap a popular character on the package and children will nag their parents until they get it.   Kids will always want the coolest new toys.  If it's a show or movie and people love it believe there will be someone ready to cash in.  The first campaign to target children in the 1970's was the Planet of the Apes series.  I bet you thought it would be Star Wars, but the Apes did it first, it's just Star Wars (George Lucas)  did it better.   Apes had toys, masks, posters, anything they thought they could sell.

                Companies will target everything from breakfast cereal to the cloths you wear, to the bedding you sleep with at night.  If it's poplar and there is a strong enough fan base the sky is the limit.  It's thrown in your face through programming, during commercial, on the internet.  In the end all kids show run their course and the companies are fine, they can adapt to the next big thing.  If you've ever seen the film "Death to Smoochy"  It's not a very popular movie but it does make fun of the system in place to exploit children.