This could be interesting, will it appeal to fans of both genders as in reaching male fans?
“Bart, Homer, Marge and the gang are about to get even cuter.
Today I’m happy to break some big news for fans of Hello Kitty and The Simpsons: Next year, the two popular franchises will merge for a special line of products.”
Japan’s Sanrio Co. has licensed her image to a Taiwanese beverage company to produce a range of fruit-flavored beers for the Chinese and Taiwanese markets. The best way I can describe it is the “beer’ a form of hard malt beverage rather that beer in my opinion. If one thinks they are going to get hammered, the beer is only going to have a AV. of 2.3%. One again there an offhand quip how Sanrio is marketing alcohol underage persons, but totally ignorant that Sanrio intends to market to Young Adult Women since the mid 1980’s and now men.
Recently I been noticing a rash of miss measured hello Kitty plush on eBay. Often the seller over estimated the height of the item, for example recently bought an 18 inch hello kitty plush listed as a 25 inch plush. The problem is the measure was not the actual height from bottom to head.
The actual height of any Sanrio plush can be accurately measured if the following guidelines are followed: if the plush is in a sitting position with legs out in front, measure the plush in the sitting position; likewise if the plush is in a stand position legs is underneath the body then measure for the standing position. Second measure the plash from ground (bottom across the nose to top of the head. Please see the picture below. I came up of the measurements by measuring my Sanrio plushes in my collection listed on Sanrio’s web retail site.
It is very important to proved an accurate measurement o protect one reputation, avoid returns and chargeback and fraud charges especially when Sanrio sell a both an 18in and 24in of the same plush . For the buyer the buyer needs to beware before purchasing on EBay or used online. Ask for the sitting position measurements before buying.
Correct way to Measure a Hello Kitty Plush Click for larger version
After reading Ken Belson book for a Hello Kitty panel I did at a fan convention, I was made aware of Pink Globalization Hello Kitty’s Trek across the Pacific by Christine R Yano, a professor and Chair of Anthropology at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. Her thesis concretes on what she called Pink Globalization, how ideas and products like Hello Kitty that is cute and seeped in the Kawai culture is exported and adopted outside Japan. She argues her point very well using lectures and interview with Hello Kitty Fans, detractors, and artist. As such, Miss Yano does not dwell on the history of Hello Kitty or Hello Kitty in Japan but how we on the outside imported and adapted Hello Kitty into our own lives and culture. This book is not a historical narrative but an academic work on Hello Kitty. It is not light reading
I do have a few two problems with the book. First is it’s over long introduction section, I really wanted to dig into the meat of the book. The second on chapter on Kitty Backlash she mentions Landover Baptist Church as a source of fundamentalist Christian opposition but fails to recognize Landover Baptist is a fictions parody site. I would expect Christine You a professor writing an academic would have been more diligent in her research, I see this as an oversight.
Being a social science buff this book gave me very good insight on How Hello Kitty is a popular Icon outside Japan and of my in interest of collecting Hello Kitty and Sanrio items as an 52 year old Male and part of furry subculture; how and how and why I was able to adapt Hello Kitty into my part of the furry subculture.
This book, even with its flaws, is good for somebody wants to look deeper into the social science of Hello Kitty.