Product Description

The American toy business is massive, world dominating, cutthroat, exciting, and increasingly willing to sacrifice our kids in its frantic rush for profit. And yet, for all its rapaciousness, the industry is in the business of delighting and fascinating our children. Toys are one of the most emotive subjects in the world. We all remember our own toys; we care desperately about those we choose for our kids, knowing these objects help shape children's lives. They are also a constantly newsworthy item: every Christmas, which toys are hot -- and the scramble by parents to grab them before the stores are empty -- is front-page and TV bulletin news.

The Real Toy Story tells the tales of these toys and of the vast, world-dominating $22 billion American industry that creates them. The rewards for success are enormous: a top toy can earn billions -- H. Ty Warner shot into Forbes's World's Richest People list with his creation of Beanie Babies. The price of failure is just as huge -- the battlefield is littered with the corpses of once-successful toy companies whose multimillion-dollar gambles did not pay off.

It is a world of contrasts. The Real Toy Story looks at both sides: at Slinky, Elmo, Barbie, Transformers, and their creators, but also at the dark side of an industry that leads the way in cold-blooded marketing targeted at children. Parents will want to learn about how this seemingly benign industry exploits, sometimes surreptitiously, the many new media: cable television, the internet, CD-ROMs, sometimes even invading the playgrounds to peddle their wares to unsuspecting young people.

Perhaps more disturbingly, this hard-hitting book examines the vast gap between the cuddly image of toys and how almost all toys destined for America are actually produced in China under sweatshop conditions.

Today the toy industry is in the midst of rapid change. Tapping into the concern millions of adults have about the toys they choose for the children in their lives, this riveting exposé is essential reading for everyone who cares about kids.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #360326 in Books
• Published on: 2007-01-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
London journalist Clark begins by invoking the magic of playtime, but the bulk of the book is a more prosaic snapshot of today's toy industry—a straightforward look at struggles and obstacles ranging from store closings and kids' ever-shorter attention spans to the dominance of Wal-Mart and China. Though the book is far from comprehensive—Clark scarcely mentions computer and video games and pretty much ignores the world outside the U.S. and England—almost any reader will find delight in his lively anecdotes, quotes and life stories from inventors, shop owners and toy-company executives. The subtitle's hint of darkness is here, too: Clark notes the "contrast between the industry's hard, often pitiless pragmatism and the cozy, lovable image of what it's selling." He sets the brutal closing chapter, "Santa's Sweatshop," in China's Pearl River Delta, the "workshop of the world." But this is no Fast Food Nation–style polemic intended to rouse readers to action; when the author's prose edges into commentary, he's more wistful than outraged. Too many of today's toys, he laments, "preach sex and violence" and are too closely linked to TV and film spinoffs. Anyone raised on Erector sets and Legos will relate. (Jan.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"A fascinating exposé of the $20 billion- a-year toy industry, in which...executives jockey for market share with alarming bloodthirstiness."

-- Atlantic Monthly

About the Author
Eric Clark, acclaimed investigative journalist formerly with the London Observer and the Guardian (Manchester), now specializes in marketing and advertising, on which he writes and lectures worldwide. The Want Makers, his major study of the advertising industry, was published in twenty countries. His nine other books include five novels. Father of three (and custodian of countless toys over the years), he lives in London with his wife, the author Marcelle Bernstein.

Customer Reviews

Amazing Toy Story
The Real Toy Story: Inside the Ruthless Battle for America's Youngest Consumers by Eric Clark is a well researched investigation of the toy industry.

Contents:
Introduction
Chapter 1: If It's February, It Must be Toy Fair
Chapter 2: The Inventors
Chapter 3: What Hasbro Wants
Chapter 4: Barbie Goes to War: Battle of the Dolls
Chapter 5: The (Vicious) Business of Toys
Chapter 6: War of the Aisles: The Retail Battleground
Chapter 7: Grabbing Them Young
Chapter 8: Santa's Sweatshop
Afterword
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Sources
Index

Very well constructed, this book will be an eye-opener for the toy buying public. Each chapter focuses on one primary aspect of the toy industry. But within the chapter are some excellent anecdotes. For example, the first chapter, "If It's February, It Must be Toy Fair," takes you to the New York City International Toy Fair. This is one of two toy fairs, and it is where the buyers and sellers gather. The sellers, showing off their new toys and games, and the buyers, looking for the next Beanie Baby or Trivial Pursuit. but interspersed in the chapter are stories of the consolidation of the market, inventors who have risked everything on their toy or game, and observations from hardened toy executives.

Your perspective of the toy industry is probably that they are special companies, selling things that children will play with, cuddly stuffed animals, Barbie, games that bring families together. Basically, they aren't like any other industry. After all, they sell fun! But you know what, scrape away that "happy" exterior and they are no different from any other company. Driven by the bottom line and Wall Street expectations, they are as ruthless as any other. Maybe more so, as they guard their research and development very, very closely. And what is it that they research? If you guessed the buying and play habits of children from ages 1 to 6, you are correct. As more children grow up sooner, the toy companies have to market to younger and younger children. And what are they marketing? Brand recognition, sex, violence. You may get upset with the beer companies using sex to sell beer, but that is nothing compared to the marketing of dolls. They don't call it sex, per se, but "lifestyle marketing." And how about viral marketing? The companies themselves (Mattel, Hasbro, and Disney) may not have blogs or YouTube videos, but their advertising agencies are continually searching blogs for patterns. They also spin up websites that gather key information on your children, their habits, demographics, etc. It was chilling.

And then we get to the last chapter, Santa's Sweatshop. If you want to know about the manufacturing of your child's toy, an inside look at a Chinese economic zone will give you an excellent perspective of how your toy was made, with a first person account from one of the workers. It made me disgusted with the whole process. But since most, if not all (depending on where you shop), of your consumer goods are manufactured in China, the toy industry isn't very different from any other manufacturer doing business in China. A very sobering chapter.

This is a highly recommended read.

Moo...
Few things look as pretty when they are stripped down to the inner workings, and the toy industry is no exception. This book takes readers on a tour of the day-to-day processes behind the manufacture and marketing of the average toy, exposing some of the more gruesome aspects of the business. Although the writing itself is a little dry and the author makes his point over and over again, the subject matter is fascinating and ultimately worth the read. The information, covering everything from sweat shops to marketing products for two-year-olds, is matter of fact on one level, chilling on another. If you have ever felt like just another cash cow, or object to the idea of your children being milked, this is a book worth checking out.

good insight
This is the only book you can find that reveals the inside of the toy industry.