Our Favorite Toy Crazes: Cabbage Patch Kids Birthed New Tactics in 1983
There are thousands of toys on the market, so what leads to one becoming a holiday toy craze? Cabbage Patch Kids were the most wanted toy of the holidays in 1983. These dolls were marketed as “unique, adoptable babies” – and each came with adoption papers and no two were the same. Some stores even simulated the birth of these dolls by pulling them out of a “cabbage patch,” putting a diaper on them, and handing them over to their new kid-parent.
Kids begged their parents for this plain-looking doll because of these entrancing marketing tactics. The dolls were in such high demand that people broke bones, the law and bank accounts to get their hands on a Cabbage Patch Kid. The dolls made Caleco $2 billion in sales by the end of 1984. No matter how simple a toy is, it could become the next craze of the holiday shopping season through some strategic marketing and a little dumb luck.
- SOURCE: The History Channel
- BRANDS: Cabbage Patch Kids
- WHY YOU WILL LOVE IT: Because you’re still bitter your parents didn’t get you one.
AUTHOR: Meghan Mormino
ORIGIN: Speaking Human Contributor
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