Kickstart: Not just a pretty face, Cabbage Patch Kids brought technology twist

Sure, Cabbage Patch Kids are known as the hottest toy of the mid-1980s. But while flying off store shelves, they also helped set a trend in manufacturing for computer-aided production.

"They were so different from other dolls at the time," said Chris Bensch, chief curator of the Strong Museum of Play, as he appeared on ABC's Good Morning America to induct Cabbage Patch Kids into the National Toy Hall of Fame on Nov. 10. "They were computer produced so they could have so many variables — skin tone, hair, the number of freckles. You could get one that looked like you."

The dolls — with their distinct vinyl heads tweaked by computer production — were added to the Hall of Fame for 2023 along with Nerf products, Fisher-Price's Corn Popper toddler toy and baseball cards. The Corn Popper was selected through popular vote from a list of toys that had been nominated several times in the past but hadn't made the final cut. The other toys were selected by judges from a list of 300 different toys that were nominated this year.

Nerf, owned by Hasbro Inc., was developed in the 1960s as a foam ball that could be used indoors. It is now more known for its foam dart guns.

Inventor Arthur Holt sold Fisher-Price his Corn Popper, a push toy with a plastic dome, in 1957. The Corn Popper has proved a durable toy throughout the decades, often passed down within a family.

And it even has made it to the big screen, showing up in Toy Story 3 in 2010.

"When you make it to a Toy Story movie, you should be in the Hall of Fame," GMA host Lara Spencer said.

Unilever is turning bottles into soap opera characters to help sell its products via social media. It isn't featuring literal blow molded bottles, but an animated take on them used by the consumer products giant to highlight its brands on TikTok.

PN sister paper Advertising Age writes that Unilever is among the leading traditional brands that is leaning into the potential of marketing on the social media app, where it has joined the #CleanTok community.

"Throughout the pandemic, we saw Gen Z engage with cleaning in a way it hadn't done before, and the rise of #CleanTok," said Eduardo Campanella, Unilever's home care chief marketing officer. "We want to bring more branded entertainment to them in a format that they find appealing."

Part of that attempt is "Dirty Deeds: A Kitchen Crime," a faux soap opera with talking bottles co-created with comedy creator and animator Sam Cotton, who has 3 million TikTok followers.

Amazon customers in two very small areas — neighborhoods in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, Calif. — can now have their packages delivered by drone. (There are, of course, restrictions to qualify for drone delivery.)

It took 10 years of research and development for Amazon to get to this point, but the expected growth of drone delivery means packaging companies need to think about how their containers would handle air delivery, David Heisner, industrial design senior manager at Graham Packaging, said at the recent SPE blow molding conference.

That means packages must be lighter, sustainable and still functional, as PN's Bridget Janis writes.

"[Drones are] not that far away," Heisner said. "How is something like that going to affect the way we design for the future?"