Free Inside: Nightmares for Life!

I realize most people view their own childhood as the Shining Golden Age before the inevitable Fall Into Mediocrity and Ruin, but in the case of cereal box prizes and premiums, I can definitely say I grew up during its Golden Age.

During the 1970's and 80's, kids' cereal boxes contained an embarrassment of riches, including music records, games, boomerangs, bike accessories, posters, and (my favorite) mini "rip cord" race cars (similar to Kenner's SSP racers).

As time went by, the line between "adult" and "kid" cereals began to blur thanks to adults who continued to buy kid cereal. As a result, the marketing of "in-box" cereal premiums has largely become a thing of the past, with some strange...even surreal exceptions.

A prime example of these befuddling promotions caught my eye last week as I enjoyed a bowl of delicious Cinnamon Toast Crunch (yes, I'm one of the aforementioned line-blurring, kid cereal-eating adults). Flipping the box around, I beheld this rather unsettling sight:

Imagine, if you will, some sleepy five year-old kid pouring him or herself a bowl of Crunch, then seeing the Joker Chop action figure leering out at them or...even worse...lurking in their cereal box! A bizarre amalgamation of Heath Ledger and Verne Troyer, this Mini-Me Joker boasts a "powerful chop" (it's not) in addition to its black, sunken eyes and bloody gashed cheeks.

Really, who's this toy marketed at, exactly?  Considering the upcoming Dark Knight movie is a hard PG-13, nobody can claim that young kids are officially part of the marketing plan (though clueless parents can always be counted on to buy them a ticket).  At the same time, will the aging fanboy collectors really want a cute-as-a-button Joker figure...especially with so many "realistic" figures available to display on their nightstands? Add to that the weirdness of actor Heath Ledger's death, and this entire promotion becomes one heck of a "Surreal Sandwich".

As with so much cynical modern marketing, I don't get it.  Well, I do in the sense that I know there's virtually no printed surface that's off-limits to a movie tie-in...but seeing the decidedly NON kid-friendly Ledger Joker marketed so casually toward kids just blows my mind. 

In fact, it would almost be like the cereal boxes of my youth including a free toy of Alex DeLarge, the amoral psycho from A Clockwork Orange. Sounds insane, right?

How is this Joker toy any less insane?

Comments

[Kyle]

Insanity as only the Joker could cause...

Speaking of clueless parents and PG movies, I finally got to go see the new Hulk movie over the long weekend. Wow! But I couldn't believe how many "five-and-unders" were in the theater. At least two-thirds of the families in the room had little'uns with them, and the crying and screaming was so loud during a couple of parts (especially when the copter fires on Hulk and Betty, who are quickly engulfed in flames, then again during the entire Abomination battle) that you couldn't really hear what was going on on-screen.

I can't imagine the nightmares some of these kids are going to be having when Mom and Pop Idiot take the entire family to see the new "Dark Knight" movie!

[Mark Engblom]

"I can't imagine the nightmares some of these kids are going to be having when Mom and Pop Idiot take the entire family to see the new "Dark Knight" movie!"

Yeah, this is one of my all-time biggest pet peeves. Some people seemed determined to snuff out whatever innocence their children may have at those tender ages, while others just seem outright clueless and oblivious to how their poor choices affect their kids. Dragging little kids into the Hulk or Dark Knight, to me, is child neglect...bordering on child abuse.

So many of us just aren't paying attention as we blunder through life....and it's too bad so many vulnerable kids have to suffer for it. In a smaller way, this idiotic Joker toy is a symptom of the same disease.

[Pat Curley]

If the parents are stupid enough to take their kids to ultra-violent movies, they can live with the nightmares.

BTW, what I don't get is the "chop" aspect. Did Heath Ledger portray the Joker as a Bruce Lee wannabe?

[Mark Engblom]

Well, there was another Joker figure just as cleverly named "Kick Joker" (along with corresponding "Chop" and "Kick" versions of a stubby Batman), and I think that's about as far as it was thought out.

I suppose we can be thankful they didn't include a tiny pencil in the Joker toy's "chop" hand (since I've heard he takes one to someone's head in "Dark Knight").

As for clueless parents living with the nightmares....yeah, they will, but it's the kids who end up suffering the most. And if the kids are already desensitized to heavy weirdness and violence by the time their "parents" take them to stuff like Dark Knight, then it's society that ends up paying the price as teachers, kids, and other parents have to deal with all of that internalized nuttiness....which manifests itself with depressing and alarming regularity in my experience.

[Marigold Fennick]

The Joker kiddie promotion is pretty bad. There's one out that might still hold the top five for weirdness. about 5 or 10 years back Burger King was selling action figure for the then new Beatlejuice cartoon with cute Lydia on one side and a scary Beatlejuice on the other. Beatle would at times have either snakes coming out of his hair or pointed shark teeth. The whole Heath Ledger thing might make the JOker worse, but i, myself think it's pretty close. But i might be wrong when you consider the Beatlejuice was supposed to be a kids show even if the movie was not.