The Power of Cute

I think that sometimes we in Toy Nation get so immersed in producing toys that are green or high tech or educational or cool that we forget the power of cute. Everyone loves cute. They are drawn to anything that is fuzzy, fluffy, furry, soft and round. Cute crosses gender, generational, class, national and racial boundaries. 

Full disclosure: I have a cat and he is, indeed fuzzy and I love him for it. I am, as you can see from my picture, not fuzzy and I am not too sure he returns my affection.

But I digress. How much do people love cute?   According to Dan Mitchell’s New York Times article, “A Small Empire Built on Cuddly and Fuzzy Branches out from the Web,” they love cute a whole lot.

He tells us that a new page-a-day desk calendar from Cute Overload “…recently shot to the top of its category on Amazon.com and, more remarkably, to the upper ranks of the site’s overall best-sellers list.”  Why, because it is filled with pictures of kitties, puppies, birdies and anything else with “ies” at the end. I would imagine they could have vulturies and, as long as they are baby vultures and are doing something cute, they would sell. 

So, in our rush to be technologically part of the 21^st century, let’s not forget that the “A-w-w-w-w” factor can be as powerful as the “Wow” factor.