Mariposa Doll

Mariposa Doll

Bratz Games

By now I’m sure that just about everyone knows about Bratz dolls.  These are the dolls that are fairly reminiscent of Barbie however with bigger heads and having every other dimension quite a bit smaller.  These dolls are marketed toward the same crowd as Barbie, but are more modeled after preteens instead of some outlandish conception of what the “perfect woman” is supposed to resemble.  At the same time, however, Bratz dolls do not necessarily bring forth a wholesome or practical notion of preteens.  The name alone makes you think of spoiled little girls; then you think about Bratz commercials and remember the dolls’ appearances, and the picture is complete.  They are wearing extravagant, seemingly expensive clothing and have giant disproportionate heads that emphasize the excessive makeup that has been painted across their big, round faces.  This makes Barbie look modest!  Something else that makes Bratz dolls different from Barbie dolls is that there are more distinct characters with different names and looks much unlike Malibu Barbie and Mariposa Barbie.  I think that there are at least four characters although I don’t know their names.  I just thought that this would be a fair distinction on which to ponder.  At any rate, I am not writing to deconstruct or deface the Bratz brand, to accuse the Bratz brand of any wrongdoing, or to develop a complex analysis comparing and contrasting Bratz dolls to Barbie dolls.  I just want to put a picture in your head before we start on our main topic of discussion which we will get to in a moment.
Earlier I mentioned marketing.  Nowadays, there are entire TV channels full of “children’s programming” that are devoted to marketing all the material wealth that children think they can’t live without, and this includes Bratz dolls.  However, in a time when the internet is being accessed more and more easily seemingly by the day, merchandisers have seen a need to branch out from cartoon world to a different medium that gets the kids a little more involved in their pursuit of entertainment and fun (with their parents’ permission of course).  They have created Bratz games.  I don’t know much if anything about the existence of Bratz games for consoles, so we are going to stick straight to Bratz games online for this discussion.
Online marketing of Bratz merchandise in the form of Bratz games is a preferred practice I’d say for a couple of reasons.  The first is that it is easy; there are hundreds of templates and programs out on the internet and plenty of programmers ready and willing to utilize them to create any kind of quick, online game for which there is a market.  For instance there are multiple dress up and makeover games featuring the Bratz characters that are not exactly original as well as a puzzle game with the same concept of Bejeweled and a racing/maze game featuring a birds eye view that is definitely not new.  The other reason that Bratz games make for good marketing is that kids can easily and willingly spend their own time taking in all the Bratz media.  They have the opportunity to spend hours seeing and hearing and reading nothing but.  That’s an effective way of making your product stick in the minds of your demographic.  It gets little girls to remember what Bratz characters look like and to hear the music loop in their heads while reminding themselves of what they did today with their favorite Bratz characters online.  However you put it, Bratz games equal good marketing.  Check out Bratz games online to see for yourself.

About the Author

To play some of these fun Bratz Games, check out Bratz-Games.org at http://www.bratz-games.org

Ideas for things to do with four-year-old girl?

I have to babysit a four-year-old girl who is obsessed with her Barbie Mariposa DVD, and all she wants to do is watch her Barbie movies and her Bratz dolls DVD. Any ideas for what I could do to get her out of the house for a while? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Not that I've ever babysitted a 4-year-old girl before, so try these at your own risk:

1) Crafts, such as those found here:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/toddler/

They require really basic materials such as paper plates, brown paper bags, paint, string, etc.
If there are any scissors and whatnot involved, be sure to handle those for her.

2) One Word: Play-Doh.

3) Two Words: Coloring Book. Or just picture books. Though it won't get her out of the house much.

4) You could try pretending things with her. Like, tell her that for the next 10 minutes, you are both princesses and the couch is your castle (but she still must follow all the rules!). Then do things like explore the house and pointing out objects as something else, almost like a metaphor. ("Your bookcase full of picture books is actually the royal library!")

5) Bake cookies with her. Make sure she doesn't eat raw cookie dough and that she doesn't touch the oven or hot cookies, and that she washes her hands, but let her shape the cookies or something.

Basically, 4-5 year olds love exploration, joy, creative outlets. Let them experience life the best they can before society clouds their bright and expressive minds.

Stick Wit You-Pussy Cat Dolls [Barbie Mariposa Version]