Playing with Fire: Marketing Youth Toy and Working Firearms as Social Problem and Social Panacea

This book offers rich critical perspectives on the marketing of a variety of toys, brands, and product categories. Topics include marketing undertaken by specific children\u27s toy brands such as American Girl, Barbie, Disney, GoldieBlox, Fisher-Price, and LEGO, and marketing trends characterizing broader toy categories such as on-trend grotesque toys; toy firearms; minimalist toys; toyetics; toys meant to offer diverse representation; STEM toys; and unboxing videos. Toy marketing warrants a sustained scholarly critique because of toys\u27 cultural significance and their roles in children\u27s lives, as well as the industry\u27s economic importance. Discourses surrounding toys—including who certain toys are meant for and what various toys and brands can signify about their owners\u27 identities—have implications for our understandings of adults\u27 expectations of children and of broader societal norms into which children are being socialized. Includes the chapter, Playing with Fire: Marketing Youth Toy and Working Firearms as Social Problem and Social Panacea by Maurer Professor Jody Madeira.https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facbooks/1299/thumbnail.jp