4 Some commentators have expressed concern about the extent to which toys such as Bratz are ‘sexualising’ children too early and accelerating the kgoy phenomenon. Do you believe that this is the case? Where do the marketers’ responsibilities begin and end?The tastes of young children have changed dramatically in the past decade. Influenced by the media and advertising, girls as young as six are now deciding to put their doll-playing years behind them and focus instead on the preoccupations of their older siblings: shopping and fashion. Girls from a young age are thus now very fashion conscious and are greatly influenced by, and certainly wish to emulate, their pop star idols. Eight- to ten-year-olds aspire to be 16 and so will reject toys their younger sisters might play with. They want to be seen as independent, have fun, wear trendy clothes and most importantly have ‘street cred’. Children, especially girls, are buying into the values and products of adulthood at a much younger age. As part of this, most children these days have access to mobile phones, the internet and other forms of electronic entertainment, again encouraging them to put aside traditional toys.

As a result of ‘kids growing older younger’ (kgoy), the toy market as a whole has become incredibly volatile.