Strawberry Shortcake

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Strawberry Shortcake (in the English original Strawberry Shortcake ) is a character and franchise of greeting card company American Greetings . In addition to the use on greeting cards , dolls , posters and numerous other products were later offered by licensees; the product line has also been expanded to include the character's friends and pets.

history

The character and her cat were designed in 1977 by Muriel Fahrion, who was working as an illustrator of greeting cards for American Greetings at the time . 32 other figures were added, each named with an alliterative name after a dessert or a fruit , wore matching clothes and had a pet that was also named after fruit or desserts. Fahrion also designed a strawberry shortcake rag doll, which became the starting point for a new line of products. The hair of the dolls was given a scent to match their name.

American Greetings launched the products in 1980 with an advertising budget of $ 2.5 million. A special feature was that the market launch - contrary to what was usual at the time - was not prepared by comics or films. In the years that followed, strawberry shortcake became a fad of young girls in America . By 1983 over 1000 strawberry shortcake products had appeared, from scrapbooks to clothing to curtains and cereals, and later also a computer game for the Atari 2600 . Even before the brand was a year old, goods worth $ 100 million had been sold; on the brand's third birthday, they were valued at over $ 1 billion. A cartoon was dedicated to the characters each year between 1980 and 1985 . After that, enthusiasm for the phenomenon subsided.

In 1991 the toy manufacturer THQ tried to revive the brand with a newly revised line of strawberry shortcake dolls (Emily and five of her friends), but production was discontinued after a year.

Another restart was attempted in 2003. The characters were redesigned and used by licensees in films (for example Strawberry Shortcake - Berry Christmas ) on DVDs and VHS cassettes as well as in computer games. From 2006 also were the toymaker Playmates Toys figures available, and the animated film Strawberry Shortcake: The Sweet Dreams Movie came into the cinemas . This new start was granted greater success: Between 2003 and 2007 American Greetings sold the brand to over 300 licensees and took in over 2 billion US dollars with the figure (over 2.5 billion by 2008). With the Care Bears (launched in 1983) , Strawberry Shortcake was the most successful American Greetings brand. Penguin Books sold 11 million books of 70 titles with the character in the same period.

In 2008, Playmates Toys licensed Hasbro to make strawberry shortcake toys . The new characters came out at the same time as the film Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's The Limit .

Footnotes

  1. ↑ See Siegel-Itzkovich, Judy: Vacuous like cotton candy. The Jerusalem Post , November 16, 2007, accessed May 17, 2012 .
  2. ↑ See Lowry, Patricia: For Fun And Profit. Pittsburgh Press, March 1, 1983, accessed May 17, 2012 . And Salmans, Sandra: Strawberry Shortcake sweetens greeting card sales. Star-News, February 15, 1981, accessed May 17, 2012 .
  3. ↑ Cf. Bynum, Aaron H .: Strawberry Shortcake Brand Hits $ 2b Sales Benchmark. Animation Insider, September 19, 2007, accessed May 17, 2012 . and Bynum, Aaron H .: SAGP Readies New 'Strawberry Shortcake' Revival. Animation Insider, July 9, 2008, accessed May 17, 2012 .
  4. ↑ The Kenner company , part of Hasbro since 1991, had already produced the first strawberry shortcake figurines in the 1980s.

literature

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