The Power of He-Man and Branding for Adults

By: Steven Shapiro, Esq.

I had the pleasure of growing up a child consumer in the 1980s. It’s POSSIBLE that I might be a little biased here, but there was no better time to BE a child consumer than the Reagan years. Watching 80s Cartoons was like peering through the window of KBToys… if KBToys still had window through which you could peer. And we loved every minute of it.

G.I.Joe. Bionic Six. Transformers. Thundercats (HOOOO!). I could go on, but let’s not allow nostalgia to derail us. Otherwise, we’ll be making vroom noises on our office floors with our M.A.S.K. car/tanks and motorcycle/helicopters.

As you can see, I dabbled in many a horizontally integrated sandbox growing up. But Masters of the Universe was by far my favorite property. Every way that you could interact with a brand, I bought into Masters of the Universe. I watched the cartoon show religiously. I had the clothes. I ate the cereal. I slept on the sheets. And of course, I collected every single action figure that came out. Especially the ones that transformed into boulders.

I propose that the licensing industry has matured with us over the past twenty+ years. 80s Saturday Morning Cartoon properties like He-Man paved the way for our current acceptance of adult licensed products in an unprecedented way. I use the word ‘adult’ to mean just about anything that isn’t an action/adventure cartoon. No longer does a brand’s reach expand to ancillary products only in the realm of child products. As adults, we might watch our favorite cook on the Food Network, but we don’t stop there. How about buying some Food Network brand kitchenware? Or, what if USA Today is your go-to newspaper when you’re traveling? Check out what other travel amenities USA Today has to offer in its airport convenience stores. Few of us have been formally trained in cross-platform brand productization, but most of us dig connections between an entertainment source and a given product line. Why? Because Saturday Morning Cartoons made us more receptive to those kinds of connections!

So in parting, I leave you with Stonedar… rockin’ out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmQTfNuZTyc