海角大神

Disney Princess flowers: coming soon to a garden near you

The Disney marketing machine is branching out, literally, with Disney Princess brand flower seeds. Princess parents hoping for a vegetable garden may be out of luck. Belle and co. adorn flowers only, with Mickey and friends promoting veggies.

Imagine this scenario:

Four-year-old Madison is obsessed with princesses. She wants to eat, sleep, breathe nothing but Disney Princess products, and it鈥檚 becoming a point of contention in her household. Her parents are tired of all the little battles over what she will wear, watch, and play with.

Madison鈥檚 mom blames herself for this situation. She loved princesses when she was a little girl, so she鈥檚 been buying princess products for Madison since Madison was an infant. She thinks sadly, 鈥淚 can鈥檛 believe I did this to my daughter.鈥�

But summer is coming, and Madison鈥檚 parents look forward to spending time outdoors. They think involving her in a little gardening might encourage her to branch out a bit鈥揹evelop new interests.

It鈥檚 time to start planting, so they plan a visit to their local garden shop. Building up Madison鈥檚 enthusiasm, they tell her, 鈥淵ou can choose any seeds you want to plant! We鈥檒l help you take care of them and you can see how they grow.鈥� She is excited. 鈥淢aybe I鈥檒l plant some carrots,鈥� she says.

But then we reached the display.聽Burpee, capitalizing on the popularity of Disney Princesses, has licensed the names and likenesses of Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Jasmine, and Cinderella to adorn their flowers鈥� seed packets.

After seeing the Disney flower packets, Madison wants Princess flowers and nothing else. Her discouraged parents remind her that she wanted carrots, but Madison insists. 鈥淚 want a princess garden, Mommy! Daddy, don鈥檛 say no.鈥�

Looking around the corner, her parents see that Burpee does offer Disney-branded vegetables 鈥� but they鈥檙e not princess-themed. The logic must be that princesses are meant to be gazed upon; they are delicate beauties; so they only adorn the packages of flowers, which share these qualities. The veggie seed packs go to Mickey and friends.

Madison鈥檚 parents never dreamed Disney would co-opt their gardening experience, and they did tell her she could choose any packets she wants鈥�.so despite her parents鈥� reluctance, the princess flowers win.

For this 鈥減rivilege鈥� of purchasing seeds that have Disney characters on their packaging, her parents will spend $1.99 a package, instead of the $1.00 to $1.19 Burpee charges for otherwise identical packages of seeds with no licensed characters on them 鈥� making the outing twice as expensive as it should have been.

Oh, and don鈥檛 forget the princess-themed plant labels, which cost $2.97 for a package of six鈥�way more than the plain ones, which cost $1.99 for a package of twenty. Yikes.

(Hey, at least 罢颈补苍补鈥檚 included on the packaging.)聽

Now, I don鈥檛 mean to knock Burpee for licensing Disney characters on their products. Gardening isn鈥檛 very exciting for modern kids; it鈥檚 slow-moving. Maybe Disney-branded seeds are actually a great way get them involved in a healthy, satisfying activity that requires more patience and work than they鈥檙e used to. (And as far as the princess-flower / animal-food divide goes, maybe Burpee鈥檚 team is just not creative enough to realize that even beautiful princesses have to eat.)

No, my point is this: The Disney Princess marketing machine is so huge, so far-reaching, that it鈥檚 hard to avoid and even harder to resist. Parents sometimes blame themselves for their daughters鈥� princess obsessions, but who鈥檚 really to blame鈥搕he parents, or the billion-dollar industry that is invested in profiting by shaping little girls鈥� dreams?

I think the answer is clear. In this kind of context, it鈥檚 hard to choose freely鈥揳nd that鈥檚 something to think critically about.

(Note: This week, the princess-branded flower seed packets at the local Home Depot are nearly entirely sold out, while most of Mickey and friends鈥� vegetable seed packets are still in stock.)

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