An entertaining and fact-filled explanation of how toy manufacturers have used psychology and state-of-the-art advertising techniques in children's programming in order to maximize their profits.In his latest, Brown, author of Tetris, André the Giant, and other well-received works of graphic nonfiction, methodically builds his case that the same strategies developed for wartime propaganda and corporate takeover purposes are deployed in stealth advertising aimed at children. With simple but clever and appealing drawings, he illustrates how Disney and other corporate behemoths have become adept at tying emotional experiences and nostalgia to their media properties. We see just how closely Americans emulate what they see on TV, the sly "salesman in every living room." Toymakers often exploit the fact that children cannot differentiate TV programs from their commercials, and they sponsor Saturday morning cartoons indistinguishable from their playtime products. Brown capably draws the history of breakthrough toys created by the industry's major players: Hasbro, whose G.I. Joe, "basically a boy's Barbie," pioneered the idea of action figures; Marvel, whose comic books were fundamentally commercials to sell their toys; and Mattel, whose bodybuilding He-Man "made Star Wars and G.I Joe figures look like wimpy pencil-neck geeks." The author continues his exploration of "advertising content disguised as programming" through the eras of syndicated animation, cable TV, video games, and numerous new entries in the Star Wars franchise. Throughout the book, Brown emphasizes that children's imaginative play is crucially important in order to learn cooperation, problem-solving, and the nuances of language. He shows how children's media have colonized this crucial area of cognitive development through his depictions of cartoon icons such as Mickey Mouse, idealized masculine role models such as He-Man, and other potent examples of what the New York Times called a "fusion of commerce and childhood imagination." Both Brown's well-studied subject and his playful graphic art are truly "Toyetic!"A boffo cartoon history of the deliberate manipulation of children's minds.

In this impassioned and incensed survey of a half-century of hawking toys to kids, Brown (Tetris) investigates toy manufacturers’ strategies for weaving their products into the fabric of American childhood. Brown’s account opens with the post-WWII ascendance of Mickey Mouse (who first appeared in 1928) and other cartoon stars with limitless potential for commercial licensing and the concurrent deployment of sophisticated psychological principles in marketing. From there, he chronicles the FCC’s evolving regulation of children’s TV programming and the wily workarounds of toymakers like Hasbro, culminating in the 1980s bonanza of daytime cartoons that blurred the line between entertainment and advertising. Toggling between PR innovator Edward Bernays and G.I. Joe, television reformer Peggy Charren and Transformers, Brown presents an enjoyable if breezy overview that scrutinizes the inflexible “kung fu grip” of nostalgia (recently on display in the toxic underside of deeply entrenched Star Wars fandom) and cautions against the yoking of children’s toys to vast content libraries that could crowd out imagination with scripted instructions for play. Fittingly, the art’s Ben-Day dots and flattened renderings of action figures nod to syndicated strips and anti-capitalist alt-comics alike. This accessible examination of the wars waged on after-school television and in the toy aisle should interest any reader attuned to the cultural critiques of Naomi Klein and Adam Curtis, as well as those who catch themselves humming the ThunderCats theme. (July)