Yes, indeed, Toooys R Us! I just didn't understood what was up with my mom knowing the words to this lil jingle better than I did! Now at age 6, I would imagine most kids would pay it no mind and just seek out an opportunity to ask for the "bestest" looking toy that flashed across the screen but I knew better. Yeah, something just wasn't right with that.
I mean ... she was grown. Why would she want to be a kid? Just about every kid I knew wanted to be an adult so that they could decide what time they'd be going to bed and what flavor of ice cream to have for breakfast when they woke up the next day. Yeah, that's right, we knew your secrets!
It wasn't until about 15 years later that I figured it all out (I never said I was the fastest kid ... just said I noticed things). Those crafty execs knew children would be suckered in automatically just from the sight of the toys alone. The adults, however (you know the "kids" with money), had to buy into something more in order to hand over their money. One care-free, nostalgia inducing jingle coming right up!
80's babies stand up! Sing it out loud!
Toy's R Us doesn't even really advertize like they used to. So well established, they probably didn't really need to there for a while. Thanks to the ROI factor being embedded into the melody, the last of the 80's babies may still frequent Toys R Us when it's time to buy lil junior a gift. Still, what will become of Toys R Us when the generation that bonded the most with the famous theme song ... grows up?
I just wanted to mention that I passed by a co-worker today and said "Ugh! I wanna go home!" and she responded "I don't wanna grow up, I'm a Toys R Us kid!!"
ReplyDeleteI guess the jingle is still DEEPLY embedded!
Yeah ... especially in her case lol --- but does she ACT on the jingle? If she has a gift/toy to buy for someone, does she go to Toys R Us the store, toysrus.com or someplace else (eg. Wal-Mart, Target or amazon.com)? Ask her, won't you?
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I didn't think of Toys R Us or their jingle too often except for when I thought about my progress in my career. Otherwise it was irrelevant until Kanye West used the line in "Through the Wire" back in what, 'o4?
So, I'm curious to know how much longer they can compete without advertising. There's just too much direct & indirect competition. Every little toy store combined with every store that just so happens to also sell toys (Wal-Mart, K-Mart, what have you ...) will continue to eat away at their market share until Toys R Us shares the same fate as Babies R Us (closing down locations) and Kids R Us (gone all together).
I believe if they don't advertise (outside of the print realm), showing us how they've changed with the times yet remained the same toy store that we always loved, we'll all be singing the jingle the day it flashes on the news that Toys R Us officially announces that they're closing all their stores. That's just my opinion though.