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Hasbro removed “Mr.” from the iconic Mr. Potato Head toy and it has not been well received, according to the Daily Wire.
Hasbro’s Decision to Drop the ‘Mr.’ From Its Potato Head Brand Proves Unpopular https://t.co/gGKy76qq2m via @ameyers_ pic.twitter.com/rg91Tn6CKj
— Morning Consult (@MorningConsult) March 1, 2021
Hasbro’s Chief Communications Officer Rich Ferraro said, “Hasbro’s decision to introduce Potato Head as a gender-neutral toy is the latest move in a larger movement towards greater diversity and inclusion in toys and media aimed at kids. By offering a toy that exists outside of the binary of male and female, Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms.”
“As we watch holiday toy commercials, we see the Nerf Ultra One and other extreme Nerf machine guns for children and are reminded of mass shootings that have devastated American children and families for decades now. In these times, the TV ad for this product plays like a Saturday Night Live parody, except that it is not at all funny,” a letter from the Empire State Consumer Project said. “It’s a matter of this being a very vulnerable consumer group. Children buy what they see and we’re not sure this is driven by market demand for assault weapon toys by children or the industry creating the demand.”
Hold that Tot – your main spud, MR. POTATO HEAD isn’t going anywhere! While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the ‘MR.’ I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren’t going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD pic.twitter.com/6I84KrxOLQ
— Hasbro (@Hasbro) February 25, 2021
From The Daily Wire:
More than half (52 percent) of the 2,200 adults who responded to a Morning Consult survey conducted Feb. 26 to March 1 disapproved of the recent change. Twenty percent approved of it and about a quarter (28 percent) had no opinion on the issue.
Morning Consult also broke down the results of their poll according to generation, noting that the name change proved unpopular even among younger generations, who generally have more liberal views regarding sexuality and gender.
Even among younger consumers — who tend to be more accepting of gender fluidity and conscious of brand values in general — opinions on Potato Head’s name change were more negative than positive: 45 percent of millennials said they disagreed with Hasbro’s decision, compared with 30 percent who said they supported the move.
Following confusion as to whether the decision would impact the individual characters, Hasbro clarified that, while the brand will change its name to Potato Head, the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will keep their respective titles.
