When I was a kid I used to wonder where they got all these people so absorbed in an apparent culture surrounding a new product no one else had ever heard of for the audiences. But then I guess that's the illusion the shows are trying to generate
On that note, I also wonderred how they had footage of football teams playing when the "live" game was yet to take place. It took me a while to figure out TV.
But since I'm already digressing, I'll take a few more steps:
I remember the very first time I saw a commercial for Transformers. OH yeah, they had me hooked. I couldn't tell if it was a movie or a TV show or a toy they were advertising, but that idea kicked a lot of major butt. They had me hooked from moment 1.
Which brings me to my last digression. Now that I"m a dad, i'm noticing that the toys on sale today are EXACTLY the toys they were trying to sell to my parents when I was a kid:
GI Joe, Star Wars, Transformers, He-Man (and for girls: Strawberry Shortcake, My LIttle Pony, Care Bears, and Cabbage Patch Kids). The only real progression are the superhero toys, but there were a few Secret Wars things on sale back then too, so they're not all that new.
My explanation for this is that my peers and I are now collecting these toys, so the adult market carries over. But if you make it appeal to kids, you've got a HUGE target for all your product line. They're geniuses. ANd it works. I buy it. They should put them all into infomercials (there, I brought it back to the original topic.)
