Tuesday, November 09, 2004
A Site to See
I've been on a kick lately using the internet to look back at what the culture was like when I was a kid.
I found this Web page to help me do it. It's full of links to galleries of food packaging, toys and television shows from the '70's.
One thing I've noticed is that when I was a kid you could go to the store and get toys with a generic "army" theme, or a generic "space" theme. I remember I once got a package of little plastic men in space suits and their shuttle-like ship in a single package. Now that I think about it, you could also get a package of generic cowboys as well.
Things have changed. It seems like every time I peruse a toy aisle these days all I see is Shrek's big ugly mug or some equally atrocious marketing tie-in. The desire to tie as many toy products to movies and television shows is making slow war against children's imaginations, evicting the creative aspect of play and reducing children to mere entertainment consumers.
Too bad.
I found this Web page to help me do it. It's full of links to galleries of food packaging, toys and television shows from the '70's.
One thing I've noticed is that when I was a kid you could go to the store and get toys with a generic "army" theme, or a generic "space" theme. I remember I once got a package of little plastic men in space suits and their shuttle-like ship in a single package. Now that I think about it, you could also get a package of generic cowboys as well.
Things have changed. It seems like every time I peruse a toy aisle these days all I see is Shrek's big ugly mug or some equally atrocious marketing tie-in. The desire to tie as many toy products to movies and television shows is making slow war against children's imaginations, evicting the creative aspect of play and reducing children to mere entertainment consumers.
Too bad.
// posted by Dean @ Tuesday, November 09, 2004 
