| [15 Jun 2005|09:23am] |
Teddy Ruxpin Makes His Return
Tue Jun 14, 6:11 PM ET
Yahoo News
The Care Bears. The Cabbage Patch Kids. Teddy Ruxpin. For children of the '80s, they were toy-store celebrities who forced parents to queue up at dawn or fight for products in aisles across America.
Now, BackPack Toys is hoping that Ruxpin, like the Bears and Kids before him, can ride a wave of nostalgia into the toy bins of a new generation. And independent The Ad Store—the shop that caused a stir with its GoDaddy.com Super Bowl spot— is charged with helping him get there.
The Ad Store's two-pronged attack will use print ads to lure adults and TV to target children. The agency, which won the business without a review, is still developing creative concepts, said managing partner Tim Arnold. First work is expected to break in August.
Ruxpin has enjoyed swift trading on eBay, and 85 percent of adults who owned the toy as kids still recognize the brand, Arnold said. "We are definitely going to target parents who will remember Teddy from their childhoods, as well as grandparents who remember giving Teddy to their children," said Helen Hames, BackPack Toys director of marketing and corporate relations.
A budget for the effort has not been determined, Hames said.
Ruxpin, which debuted as a Worlds Of Wonder toy in 1985, is due to relaunch in September— most notably in 2,000 Target stores.
MP3 cartridges have replaced his original cassette tapes, but Teddy Ruxpin's animatronic eyes and mouth will move in trademark fashion as he narrates a series of stories about the land of Grundo.
Arnold said Ruxpin shows the "wonderful other end of the Richter scale" from the controversial SuperBowl spot, which only aired once before being pulled by Fox.
-- DEANNA ZAMMIT
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