Growing up, I watched a lot of Disney movies which included "Toy Story" and its sequels. Throughout the movie, viewers can see all kinds of toys-from simple plastic toys to toys that exist in real life (Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, Etch-a-Sketch). For the longest time, I didn't pay much attention to the real life toys because I thought that they were just in the movie because they were just another toy that little kids should have. However, after learning a little more about product placement and how most brand names featured in movies and TV shows usually pay for the advertising, it's come to my attention that "Toy Story" must've been an extremely effective ads for Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, and Etch-a-Sketch.
I'm not too sure how sales were doing for the classic stories in the 90's since I was very young, but after doing a little research about how the sales of Mr.Potato Head, Slinky, and Etch-a-Sketch fared after the movie, it's quite clear that their sales went through the roof after the movie.
The use of "Madison and Vine," product placement, by the makers of these toys has proven to be very effective. The three toys whose sales went up after the movie played pretty significant roles in the movie and didn't just blend in with the other masses of toys. By seeing how important and cool the toys are in the movie, kids were/are prompted to want the toys seen in movies. According to this article on mentalfloss.com, "After being featured as characters in the Pixar/Disney film, sales soared immediately. Etc-a-Sketch saw a 4500% boost. Slinkys were no longer being produced because they weren't profitable. Post-Toy Story Linky received 20,000 orders, which revitalized the company. Mr.Potato Head sales jumped 800%."
Even to this day, many years after I watched "Toy Story" for the first time, I still associate Mr.Potato Head and Etch-a-Sketch with "Toy Story." Though product placement can sometimes be distracting, the product placement of these toys have been very effective without disturbing the plot line of the story.
Even though it is obvious that there are certain toys that are being used in Toy Story, I feel like Toy Story didn't do it as a way of product placement. I feel like they did it as a way for the children to connect to these toys that they play with on a regular daily basis.
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