Strawberry Shortcake tarted up

The toy fair hosted at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre at the end of each January is a relatively secretive affair closed to the general public, as the process of unleashing the next Tickle Me Elmo in time for Christmas shopping requires nine months of contemplation, and cheap labour. The folks selling Strawberry Shortcake, however, jumped the queue with a press release touting the reincarnation of the character that began her life on a card produced by the American Greetings Corporation in 1979, then was turned into a scented doll just in time to exploit FCC deregulation allowing for kiddie cartoon programs to be indistinguishable from their surrounding commercial breaks. But while the original Miss Shortcake, dressed in puffy bonnet, demure apron dress and wooden shoes appeared destined to grow up spending her days and nights hunched over a weaving loom, with only her cat Custard providing companionship, the post-makeover Strawberry is appropriately tarted up in her ironic schoolgirl outfit complete with stripey shirt, primped for a night of recurring trips to the “bathroom” with Lindsay Lohan and Nicole Richie. The disappearance of the red flushes from her cherubic cheeks suggests she may not be the kind of character you’d want your daughters dressing up as for Halloween – not because of any egregious behaviour Strawberry Shortcake’s new club-hopping look might inspire down the line, but because it will remind her first generation of fanatics, who grew up to fashion themselves media-savvy sophisticates, of just how impossible it is to fend off any marketing assault directed at the senses of a little girl.