This summer my aunt and my cousins, a 9-year-old boy and 6 year-old girl, came to visit my family for two weeks and I got a glimpse into the world of children’s toys. One day Owen, my 9-year-old cousin, saw a commercial for Air Hogs remote control cars while he was watching cartoons. The commercial showed the cars flying through the air, flipping over, and racing each other. He thought the toy was awesome and he absolutely had to have it. Luckily, the commercial said it was available at Target, a short drive from our house. Owen decided to buy the $40 toy with money he had saved from allowance and birthday presents. We made a trip to Target where he headed straight to the Air Hogs section to buy the remote control car, still talking about how great the toy was on the commercial.
The problems started as soon as we got the toy car home. The car took almost 10 hours to fully charge and it was difficult to maneuver since it was not very responsive to the controller. A few minutes after starting to play with the finally charged car, Owen accidently drove the toy straight into the pool. Although it was rescued immediately, the water damage had already been done and the toy stopped working about five minutes later. Owen decided to call the customer service number on the back of the package for guidance and the operator suggested leaving the toy in the sun on a towel for two days, and if it still wasn’t working to exchange it at Target. The call was on speakerphone and we were surprised the operator acted like he was speaking to an adult instead of a third grader. Two days later the toy still wasn’t working and we went back to Target where it was exchanged without a problem.
It turned out the replacement car was worse than the first and had trouble holding a charge. The second car would run for a few minutes before sputtering to a stop, which was not nearly long enough to even try to do any of the tricks shown in the exciting commercial. After switching the batteries countless times and trying to charge it for almost a week, it was back to Target with the poor quality toy and a disappointed Owen. The toy was returned and Owen decided to pick out a new toy with the money from the return. He chose a remote control helicopter and he told me he picked it because his friend owned the same one and Owen had seen working well in real life, not just on a commercial.
The Air Hogs experience seemed to teach Owen that what you see in commercials isn’t always what you get, and it helped me see how easily children are influenced by commercials. I think commercials that show children’s toys being operated by professionals and are possibly computer enhanced is a recipe for disappointment for children. This dissatisfaction could affect the likelihood that a child will want to purchase a similar product from the company in the future. I think this experience highlights the importance of truth in advertising, since no matter how engaging your commercials are a bad product likely won’t be successful for long. Owen told everyone in my family and the neighborhood that the Air Hogs remote control car was terrible, especially considering how expensive it was. I think that this negative word of mouth about the product might be even more influential to parents and children than a flashy commercial on Nickelodeon. I wonder why children’s toy companies like Air Hog don’t place more emphasis on making the actual product experience at least almost as good as the commercial.
The Air Hogs commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwR1-ASKCy8
Claire Dunn
BEM Marketing major, Sociology minor
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