to think that the toy manufacturers need to rethink their ad stategies so that we do not have dozens of "come and tell me what my DD meant when she requested a horse with wings that sings Ba Ba Black Sheep"?

[MmeLindt]

There have been a few of these OPs recently, and it has got me thinking that the ad guys are doing something wrong.

Their target market is toddlers and they cannot think up a snappy jingle to make it easier on parents to know what their little darlings want?

Good point, Mme. Although maybe we should all feel guilty for letting children watch TV without us knowing what they are seeing...

Anyway, suggest 'Baa Baa Black Sheep, here's a horse with wings. You'll find it at Toys R Us, at the end of Aisle 6.'

Guilt is the oxygen of mothers.

They could just repeat the name of the product 50 times during the ad.

dorapegasusdorapegasusdorapegasusdorapegasus...

DCs like repetition

the trouble with the snappy jingle thing is you end up with a 3yo boy running around singing about barbie and baby born. which he doesn't want.

"They could just repeat the name of the product 50 times during the ad."

It only works if they hear it properly. DH, bless his heart, spent aaaaages going round the toy shops last year looking for a Highland princess for DD1. Until he asked an assistant for help and she gently suggested that he wanted a barbie Island Princess. Up to that point, DH had been looking for tartan......

Edam, if your toddler is watching Dora on Nick Jnr I don't really think parents should feel guilty about not watching the adverts with their DC, it is unlikely to be anything herd hitting now is it?

As MmeLindt says there is more than enough guilt flying around without that sort of attitude! (Foward facing buggies comes to mind )

I wasn't being serious, NCb! Surely the crappy jingle should have given that away?

Although I did have ds on a strict diet of Cbeebies only at that age a. because I'm not shelling out for Sky and b. no ads = no pester power. Oh, and c. when he did discover the delights of Milkshake, I explained how advertisers are trying to trick you into spending all their money with them (citing the example of my mother, who was a copywriter). C. didn't work so well, I must admit...

No Edam, I have no sense of humour and I take life far too seriously.

Of course now you have pointed it out it makes perfect sense to me and I feel very very silly

I think this is an intentional plan. Parents spend ages trying to find out wtf a asjksdahncvnjzhjkdsa is, and when they finally find out, they're too happy to finally understand, that they don't think 'wait a minute, do we want a £400 ride-on stegasaurus?!?'

Ooh, a ride-on stegosaurus, now that sounds like a brilliant idea!

Edam

Why would we not want a ride on Stegasaurus? I mean really imagine the hours of fun your toddler will have sitting still... yeah, 'cause they sooo enjoy sitting still

Mind you if it did work at keeping them still for hours on end then it would be £400 well worth spending

NCb - phew!

I want a ride-on Stegosaurus and I want one now! Must call my mother...

Don't you mean "I want a sit down move thing dog, well not dog but kind of..." that way your Mum can join the ranks of the unenlightened like the rest of us

Ermm - I'm sorry edam, but 'I want' doesn't get [looks stern emoticon].

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa! S'not fair!

(Actually if they made a ride-on Stegosaurus my mother would probably buy it for ds. She got him a dinosaur that moves and flashes its eyes and makes noises one year.)

It took me ages to find "Teksta" one year for DS2. Finally he mentioned the advert tagline "the robotic puppy" and I found it.

It's not just the toys - having been watching milkshake DS was nagging me about 3 months ago - "you really have to get a Nicer Dicer Mummy". Aargh.

May I please have a ride-on stegosaurus? Please oh please?

dd seems to have very specific needs:

A wand that makes real spells
A penguin outfit
A blue dressing gown with white hearts

I say (in a rather desperate fashion) " oh right...have you seen these anywhere"? and she says..."oh no ...but father Christmas will bring them...he can do anything...he's magic"

Edam - do you want to have to go and sit on the naughty step? I didn't think so. Now just see how nicely Notreallycutoutforthis asked for the ride-on stegosaurus.

You'll both just have to wait until Christmas day, and see if you've been good enough this year for Father Christmas to bring you one.

Edam ride on triceratops

Is that close enough - it is life size!

That's the one I meant - sorry, got the sort of dinosaur wrong, but it is a genuine ride-on one. And I got the price wrong, too, you can get them at Amazon for £230. Very reasonable.

LOL at the Highland Barbie, might be a good seller though.

You might be right, NQC, it is all part of a dastardly plan to make us spend more.

Perhaps not such a bad idea of DH, to be completely incapable of setting up the sat dish so we can only watch DVDs at the moment. I will tell him to wait until after Xmas to fix it.

Hurrah for MN

without it I would never have known that "the puppy that talks to you and knows your name" was a Fur Real thing

I hate it, but have bought it anyway. Have I given in to pester power? Probably, but it cost a bit less than our budget so no bother. DD will love it