South Park is in demand. © 1997 Comedy Partners, Inc. All rights reserved.

Ya Need A Star...
Why is this year chillier than the Snow Miser's heart? In order for a brand to become successful there must first be brand recognition. This can be achieved in several ways. In the first example, a product is heavily pre-promoted months in advance. This was a ploy popular with Disney in the 1990s. Long before the celebrated summer animated blockbuster arrived, there would be mall tours, promotional tie-ins, early releases of action figures, and even books featuring characters that had yet to hit the screen. A second scenario is the "runaway" hit. Take South Park as an example: Merchandising had to play catch up once the scatological scamps went from cult hit to nationwide phenomenon, but the buyers were there when the goods arrived. In a third instance, time and endurance leads to expansion of brand recognition. The Simpsons are a case in point; as the show continues to roll into its second decade, the number of licensees has steadily grown to over 200. Much the same can be said for Rugrats, which is quietly toddling to its tenth anniversary and second feature film. In one of those depressing tests recently administered to school-age children by concerned social scientists, Bart Simpson had a higher recognition factor than several famous U.S. Presidents. What the researchers don't realize is that few children tote Thomas Jefferson lunchboxes or FDR backpacks to school.

Courage The Cowardly Dog. TM & © Cartoon Network. A Time Warner Co. All rights reserved.

At this point, marketability ties into fashion-consciousness. There are no products bearing the likenesses of early heroes of democracy or architects of the New Deal because these luminaries aren't cool enough (translation: "They won't sell"). The important image is the one that's hot at any given time, and not hot is not hip. Thus, people will not buy merchandise tied to shows that have a low cultural recognition factor, are unpopular, or not disseminated widely enough to be accepted as "Kewl!" Needless to say, no one will be buying any merchandise representing shows that lasted less than five episodes. In a society already infamous for its short attention span, almost instant popularity is needed in order to assure large (if short-term) profits and a shot at long-term licensing muscle. This year's crop of animation has had some artistic winners and creative triumphs, but may prove as scrawny as Charlie Brown's Christmas tree in the actual retail market.

Animated primetime shows and much of the Saturday-morning and/or cable fare simply did not survive long enough over the past year to achieve recognition by any of the roads described above. The pre-promotion and hype that originally accompanied Family Guy could not make it a runaway hit with the public. Although there were some very pleasant surprises this year, such as Courage The Cowardly Dog and SpongeBob SquarePants, neither achieved the cult-to-hit status that leads to marketing bonanzas. Some of the Web toons truly do hold promise, but probably for the next holiday season. Finally, much of the animated product market was cornered by (oh, not that "P" word again!) a certain Japanese import that likely outsold all other animation-related merchandise combined.