April 30, 2024 • 8 mins
On this day in 1952, Mr. Potato Head became the first toy to be advertised on television.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that proves there's more than one way to make history.
I'm Gay Bluesya, and today we're looking back at an
early TV milestone, the day when American children were first
(00:22):
sold on the idea of playing with a potato. The
day was April thirtieth, nineteen fifty two. The Mister potato
Head funny Face kit became the first toy to be
advertised on television. Designed by Brooklyn inventor George Lerner in
(00:48):
nineteen forty nine, the original Mister Potato Head wasn't the hollow,
plastic spud we're familiar with today. Instead, it was an
actual potato, or more specifically, it was a box of
plastic facial features and body parts which could be used
to decorate a potato. Another difference from the modern potato
(01:09):
Head is that the original's hands and feet weren't meant
to be attached directly to the potato. Instead, the kit
included a small plastic body onto which a potato could
be skewered to form the character's oversized head. More versatile
than the name suggested, the toy allowed kids to anthropomorphize
(01:30):
the fruit or vegetable of their choice. The sharpened points
on the backs of the accessories could be jabbed into
any piece of produce, a feature that was demonstrated on
the box art with an apple, an orange, a beet,
and a green pepper That said a potato was still
considered the ideal canvas, likely because it balanced well on
(01:52):
the base, spoiled less quickly, and didn't spray juice when pierced.
The toy felt tailor made for kids who liked to
play with their food, but Lerner still had a tough
time getting a toy company to back the idea. The
concern was that parents of the era had just lived
through World War II, and with the days of food
(02:13):
rationing still fresh in their minds, they might disapprove of
a toy that encouraged food waste. In the end, Lerner
did find a buyer willing to take a gamble on
his offbeat prototype. The Hasenfeld Brothers Toy Company of Rhode Island,
which later shortened its name to hasbro Lerners sold them
(02:34):
the rights to Mister Potato Head for seven thousand dollars
and of five percent royalty for every kit sold. The
launch date was scheduled for May one, nineteen fifty two.
In the original set, which included twenty eight pieces, was
priced at just ninety eight cents. Before the toy hit shelves, though,
there was still the question of how to market it,
(02:56):
and more importantly, to whom. The first American toy ads
had appeared in print in the eighteen hundreds, and their
target audience wasn't children but parents, mothers in particular. The
rationale was that they were the ones who controlled the
family's money and made the purchasing decisions, so it was
them who needed the most convincing. That approach to toy marketing,
(03:20):
known as the gatekeeper model, continued well into the twentieth century,
even after radio became the leading form of advertising. The
tradition finally began to wane after the Second World War,
when children suddenly found themselves flush with pocket money for
the first time in history, it seemed worthwhile to advertise
(03:40):
toys directly to kids. But it was the advent of
television that really kicked the practice into high gear. In
the early nineteen fifties, TV commercials were rapidly becoming the
medium of choice for advertisers, but even with easy access
to a national audience, toy companies were reluctant to jump
on board due to the added production costs. It just
(04:02):
didn't seem worth the money to create a sixty second
TV ad for something is self explanatory as a doll
or a bicycle. However, that line of thinking didn't apply
to an outlier like Mister potato Head. The concept required explanation,
so in this case, Hasbro decided a TV commercial was
(04:23):
worth the investment. The historic ad premiered on April thirtieth,
nineteen fifty two, one day before Mister potato Head's nationwide launch.
Its content was pretty much what you'd expect, young kids
excitedly playing with the toy while a narrator explains how
it works and where to buy it. Unfortunately, mister Potatohead's
(04:45):
debut commercial has not been preserved online, but to give
you an idea of what it was like, here's an
ad from a year or so later after the release
of Missus potato Head.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
What new Bro potato Head with their own cars and trailers.
That's what's new. See Mister potato Head as a car
and boat trailer, and there's a car and shopping trailer
for his wife, Missus potato Head. It's such fun to
do and so easy. Like this, take any fruit or vegetable.
(05:18):
Just sticking eyes and ears and then the mouth. You
can make the funniest looking people in the whole world.
Potato Head. People look different every time you make them,
Mister and potato.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Head, as you might expect. Being the first toy advertised
on television turned out to be good for sales. Hasbro
sold more than a million mister potato Heads by the
end of the first year, and the introduction of the
character's wife in nineteen fifty three pushed sales even higher.
Despite how revolutionary the marketing campaign was. Though the idea
(05:55):
of toy commercials aimed at children didn't catch on right away,
has Ro's bold move did prompt a few other toy
companies to start producing their own, but the practice didn't
become the norm until nineteen fifty five, when The Mickey
Mouse Club hit the airwaves with a built in audience
of young fans to sell to. From then on, kids
(06:17):
have taken a more active role in deciding how to
populate their playrooms. Some make purchases themselves with their saved
up allowance and others employ their so called pester power
to convince grown ups to buy on their behalf. Of course,
whether companies should be advertising to kids in the first
place is a whole other discussion. As for the spud
(06:39):
that started at all, his early success was threatened in
the nineteen sixties when new government regulations prohibited the sale
of toys with sharp pieces. In response, Hasbro designed a
new plastic potato to act as both the body and
the head. It featured pre made holes for the facial
pieces to plug into, and all of the components were
(07:01):
made two times larger so they would no longer pose
a choking hazard. These changes ultimately worked out for everyone,
as the new and improved potato head was deemed safe
enough for preschool children, thus broadening the toys market. It
also meant that parents no longer had to worry about
forgotten fruits and vegetables left or rod under the sofa,
(07:25):
or at least not as much. I'm gabelues yay, and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up
with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDI HC Show and If you have
(07:45):
any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my
way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks
to you for listening. I'll see you back here again
tomorrow for another Day in History classm
This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a
show that proves there's more than one way to make history.
I'm Gay Bluesya, and today we're looking back at an
early TV milestone, the day when American children were first
(00:22):
sold on the idea of playing with a potato. The
day was April thirtieth, nineteen fifty two. The Mister potato
Head funny Face kit became the first toy to be
advertised on television. Designed by Brooklyn inventor George Lerner in
(00:48):
nineteen forty nine, the original Mister Potato Head wasn't the hollow,
plastic spud we're familiar with today. Instead, it was an
actual potato, or more specifically, it was a box of
plastic facial features and body parts which could be used
to decorate a potato. Another difference from the modern potato
(01:09):
Head is that the original's hands and feet weren't meant
to be attached directly to the potato. Instead, the kit
included a small plastic body onto which a potato could
be skewered to form the character's oversized head. More versatile
than the name suggested, the toy allowed kids to anthropomorphize
(01:30):
the fruit or vegetable of their choice. The sharpened points
on the backs of the accessories could be jabbed into
any piece of produce, a feature that was demonstrated on
the box art with an apple, an orange, a beet,
and a green pepper That said a potato was still
considered the ideal canvas, likely because it balanced well on
(01:52):
the base, spoiled less quickly, and didn't spray juice when pierced.
The toy felt tailor made for kids who liked to
play with their food, but Lerner still had a tough
time getting a toy company to back the idea. The
concern was that parents of the era had just lived
through World War II, and with the days of food
(02:13):
rationing still fresh in their minds, they might disapprove of
a toy that encouraged food waste. In the end, Lerner
did find a buyer willing to take a gamble on
his offbeat prototype. The Hasenfeld Brothers Toy Company of Rhode Island,
which later shortened its name to hasbro Lerners sold them
(02:34):
the rights to Mister Potato Head for seven thousand dollars
and of five percent royalty for every kit sold. The
launch date was scheduled for May one, nineteen fifty two.
In the original set, which included twenty eight pieces, was
priced at just ninety eight cents. Before the toy hit shelves, though,
there was still the question of how to market it,
(02:56):
and more importantly, to whom. The first American toy ads
had appeared in print in the eighteen hundreds, and their
target audience wasn't children but parents, mothers in particular. The
rationale was that they were the ones who controlled the
family's money and made the purchasing decisions, so it was
them who needed the most convincing. That approach to toy marketing,
(03:20):
known as the gatekeeper model, continued well into the twentieth century,
even after radio became the leading form of advertising. The
tradition finally began to wane after the Second World War,
when children suddenly found themselves flush with pocket money for
the first time in history, it seemed worthwhile to advertise
(03:40):
toys directly to kids. But it was the advent of
television that really kicked the practice into high gear. In
the early nineteen fifties, TV commercials were rapidly becoming the
medium of choice for advertisers, but even with easy access
to a national audience, toy companies were reluctant to jump
on board due to the added production costs. It just
(04:02):
didn't seem worth the money to create a sixty second
TV ad for something is self explanatory as a doll
or a bicycle. However, that line of thinking didn't apply
to an outlier like Mister potato Head. The concept required explanation,
so in this case, Hasbro decided a TV commercial was
(04:23):
worth the investment. The historic ad premiered on April thirtieth,
nineteen fifty two, one day before Mister potato Head's nationwide launch.
Its content was pretty much what you'd expect, young kids
excitedly playing with the toy while a narrator explains how
it works and where to buy it. Unfortunately, mister Potatohead's
(04:45):
debut commercial has not been preserved online, but to give
you an idea of what it was like, here's an
ad from a year or so later after the release
of Missus potato Head.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
What new Bro potato Head with their own cars and trailers.
That's what's new. See Mister potato Head as a car
and boat trailer, and there's a car and shopping trailer
for his wife, Missus potato Head. It's such fun to
do and so easy. Like this, take any fruit or vegetable.
(05:18):
Just sticking eyes and ears and then the mouth. You
can make the funniest looking people in the whole world.
Potato Head. People look different every time you make them,
Mister and potato.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Head, as you might expect. Being the first toy advertised
on television turned out to be good for sales. Hasbro
sold more than a million mister potato Heads by the
end of the first year, and the introduction of the
character's wife in nineteen fifty three pushed sales even higher.
Despite how revolutionary the marketing campaign was. Though the idea
(05:55):
of toy commercials aimed at children didn't catch on right away,
has Ro's bold move did prompt a few other toy
companies to start producing their own, but the practice didn't
become the norm until nineteen fifty five, when The Mickey
Mouse Club hit the airwaves with a built in audience
of young fans to sell to. From then on, kids
(06:17):
have taken a more active role in deciding how to
populate their playrooms. Some make purchases themselves with their saved
up allowance and others employ their so called pester power
to convince grown ups to buy on their behalf. Of course,
whether companies should be advertising to kids in the first
place is a whole other discussion. As for the spud
(06:39):
that started at all, his early success was threatened in
the nineteen sixties when new government regulations prohibited the sale
of toys with sharp pieces. In response, Hasbro designed a
new plastic potato to act as both the body and
the head. It featured pre made holes for the facial
pieces to plug into, and all of the components were
(07:01):
made two times larger so they would no longer pose
a choking hazard. These changes ultimately worked out for everyone,
as the new and improved potato head was deemed safe
enough for preschool children, thus broadening the toys market. It
also meant that parents no longer had to worry about
forgotten fruits and vegetables left or rod under the sofa,
(07:25):
or at least not as much. I'm gabelues yay, and
hopefully you now know a little more about history today
than you did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up
with the show, you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook,
and Instagram at TDI HC Show and If you have
(07:45):
any comments or suggestions, feel free to send them my
way by writing to This Day at iHeartMedia dot com.
Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing the show, and thanks
to you for listening. I'll see you back here again
tomorrow for another Day in History classm
This Day in History Class News
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Gabe Luzier
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