Weighting Game

We live in a confusing world. We're constantly assaulted with news stories and reports about issues like obesity and over-indulgence. Then, as soon as the news cuts out, we are bombarded with commercials full of beautiful people extolling the virtues of the next “big thing;” video games, fast food, high-paced low-activity lifestyles … it's hard to find balance. If it's difficult for adults, imagine how hard it must be for children growing up in this environment. These mixed messages are likely to take a great toll on a kid's ability to manage a modern lifestyle and remain healthy.

As Tom Conley, president of the Toy Industry Association (TIA) points out to Playthings, “There is a pervasive tendency in this country, in this culture, toward inactivity. And that's being promulgated both by the educational system, and it's being promulgated by the fact that we have parents that feel very concerned about letting their kids out to play … so the idea of play and physical activity—whether it be for safety reasons [or] whether it be for societal reasons, whatever—it really has changed dramatically. So kids have changed and they are more sedentary.”

According to a February Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study, “children today spend an average of five-and-a-half hours a day using the media, almost the equivalent of a full time job, and more time than they spend doing anything else besides sleeping.”

The industry may be somewhat of a contributor to the obesity issue by marketing toy products in partnership with fast-food restaurants. (See Playthings, January 2004, “Fast food takes a bite out of the toy market.”) Additionally, the popularity of video games and other media-related or technology-based toys that keeps kids physically inactive, continues.

QSR Magazine—a trade publication covering the chain restaurant industry—in a recent issue referred to McDonald's as “the world's largest toy distributor,” citing that Happy Meal sales account for about 20 percent of the fast-food giant's sales. Giant is indeed the word; the magazine also reports that the average Happy Meal has more than 600 calories.

The good news is that the obesity issue is being addressed by both restaurants and toy makers alike. McDonald's recently incorporated a plan to expand its Happy Meal menu by offering items like one-percent milk and apple slices to give customers some healthier options. McDonald's has even gone as far as to create a Go Active Happy Meal featuring salads, bottled water, a pedometer and a booklet written by personal trainer Bob Greene. These meals—aimed at adults—send a unified message that focuses on the importance of healthy eating habits. Many other restaurants are following McDonald's lead and adding healthy options to their own menus.

Some toy manufacturers are also making an effort to promote their product through some non-traditional avenues as an attempt to combat obesity. For example, Toronto-based Spin Master is launching two new promotions for the company's Mighty Beanz, one with Dannon, the yogurt company, and one with Subway, the sandwich restaurant chain. Harold Chizick, Spin Master spokesman tells Playthings the company decided to partner with these companies because “parents these days are thinking healthy.” He emphasizes the overall importance of a parental role in regulating the eating and playing habits of their children.

Chizick believes that many parents these days are aware of the health risks associated with unhealthy eating, and that many would prefer to include yogurt in a bagged lunch rather than an unhealthier option, like a bag of chips. He attributed the decision to partner with Subway to the fact that “Subway is now the company that everyone is associating with healthy eating and lifestyle.”

In addition to marketing toys and food together, there has also been a significant change in the way that kids approach play with video games and technology toys gaining more of the overall toy market.

According to data collected by NPD Group's Funworld division, the traditional toy industry made an estimated $20.7 billion, and the video game industry made approximately $10 billion in 2003. It may be expected that as time goes on, these technologically advanced toys will take over more and more of the market, eventually forcing even the most resistant retailers to incorporate video games into their retail selection in order to survive.

Kathleen McHugh, executive director of the American Specialty Toy Retailing Association (ASTRA) tells Playthings, “The toys that our retailers promote, are toys that engage kids in open, active, creative play … Most of our retailers don't really carry video [games] in their stores because we aspire to the idea that play is brain food where kids lead the play.” McHugh stresses the importance of social interaction, something that she associates more with traditional play, rather than playing with video games. “Our retailers would probably encourage a healthy lifestyle that incorporates riding a bike rather than pretending to, and socializing with other children,” she tells Playthings.

McHugh's sentiment is likely one shared by many specialty retailers concerned with the issues that children face, including obesity. And they are the same ones to whom parents will likely turn when searching for toys to combat child obesity, but are fun as well.

TIA's Conley tells Playthings that he believes “there's a real opportunity for the specialty retailers to grab this issue and really embrace this issue and reach out to parents and caregivers and to educators so that they take back the playtime that the kids so desperately need.” He adds “especially in the specialty market, there's a real opportunity, I feel, for these stores to carve out a niche that really displays the values that a lot of the owners believe in … Those folks have the ability to feature products in their store and to arrange their store and to create activities around their products that are different than the typical assortment that you might find in a big mass [market] retailer.”

There are a number of fairly new products available that incorporate the physical aspect with the ever-growing electronic aspect of play. These new products—like the Cateye Fitness Bike by Source Distributors of Dallas (SRP $349.99), which replaces a traditional video game controller with an actual stationary fitness bike for racing games, or Bella Dancerella by Spin Master (SRP $29.99), which teaches kids the basics of ballet right in their own living rooms—provide concerned retailers with an opportunity to carry innovative and unique products that will appeal to both parents and children.

Jim Stone is the vice president of sales and marketing for Source Distributors of Dallas. Normally, the company strictly creates fitness equipment, but upon discovering the technology to incorporate game play with cycling, decided to run with it. “We have taken the approach that we should try to harness that market rather than shun away from it.”

And harness it they have. Stone tells Playthings that his company has made deals with numerous elementary and high schools that have incorporated the professional version of the bikes (SRP $1169.00) into their physical education programs. “The schools are buying these like 'hotcakes',” he says.

Stone credits the company's success with the ability to communicate with young people on their own level and with the fact that his product “removes the drudgery from fitness.” He points out that the use of video games to enhance fitness is so effective because kids get involved for the fun factor and “fitness is the side effect.”

Other non-toy, kid-centric companies are joining the movement for active play as well. The Nickelodeon network, for one, took a three hour “station break” on October 2, 2004, going 'dark,' as a part of the network's first global “Day of Play” event. The program was designed to get kids off the couch and outside playing. It was part of a larger campaign with the Boys and Girls Clubs of America called “Lets Just Play,” which is in its second year.

New York City's International Toy Center partnered with a number of its tenants including Hasbro, Leapfrog and others to sponsor two days of board gaming on August 17 and 18, 2004. The event gave kids ages 8 to 15 the opportunity to play board games and compete to win prizes. About 100 children from the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation attended each day. Playthings was among the sponsors for this event, along with numerous others.

As for an overall industry response, TIA's Conley points to the Save the Music Program as “a model that I would hope the toy industry could eventually aspire to. They have brought back music education, which was falling away. We need to do something just like that to bring back activity and physical education and playtime, because the same arguments that they made for students' developmental skills and social skills in terms of music education also apply to play and physical education. It's all part of being what they used to call—in the old days—a 'liberal education' … that is, being a well-rounded person.”

Conley also tells Playthings “our strategic plan calls for us to try to undertake such a program. However, we have neither the specifics nor the funding at this time.”

Clearly, the issue of childhood obesity is highly complex, and the contributing factors are abundant. The toy industry may not be able to provide all of the answers, but the continued and increased efforts from different areas of the industry will likely lead to a significant contribution to the positive development of children in the future.