Mr. Potato Head, the classic Hasbro toy that presumably lived the first 70 or more years of his life as a male tuber, will soon be renamed with the gender-neutral nickname “Potato Head”.
The new name will be reflected in the packaging scheduled to debut later this year, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
Mr. Potato Head, the classic Hasbro toy that presumably lived the first 68 years of his life as a male tuber, will soon be renamed with the gender-neutral nickname “Potato Head”.
(Rich Polk / Getty Images for Variety)
Hasbro claimed that Mr. Potato Head, who is often sold alongside Mrs. Potato Head, needed a “modern makeover”, according to the AP. Both Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head were still classified under their original names on Hasbro’s website as of Thursday afternoon.
A Hasbro representative did not immediately respond to a request for additional information from Fox News
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Kimberly Boyd, senior vice president of global brands and general manager at Hasbro, told Fast Company that the brand overhaul reflects our modern times.
“The culture has evolved,” Boyd told the outlet. “Children want to be able to represent their own experiences. The way the brand currently exists – with ‘Mr.’ and ‘lady’ – is limiting when it comes to gender identity and family structure. “
Boyd added that Hasbro hopes that the brand overhaul will allow children to make “small potato families” the way they see fit.
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The toy that was to become Mr. Potato Head was originally designed in the early 1940s by Brooklyn-born inventor George Lerner, who initially planned only to sell pin-style facial and body parts (consumers would supply their own vegetables to spear the pieces ). He first sold the idea to a cereal company, which planned to use the pieces as prizes, before the Hassenfeld brothers heard about Lerner’s idea and bought it back, according to the National Toy Hall of Fame. The toy soon went into production and debuted in 1952 under its new official name: Mr. Potato Head.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.