Cabbage Patch Kids? No Wait. I Mean.. Garbage Pail Kids!

Do You Remember The Excitement Of Trading & Collecting

G a r b a g e  P a i l   K i d s ?

Garbage pail kids are a series of trading cards which were produced by the Topps Company which was originally released in 1985 and was designed around the parody of the hit popular Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. There names are very different almost complete opposites, which made me think why the Topps Company designed it this way. Here are some interesting facts about garbage pail kids: 

• Several schools had banned the stickers/ trading cards in the 80's because they were too much of a distraction in classrooms.
• The company Topps were known for making baseball and football stickers
• There were two versions of each card an A & B with the same artwork but different name for the character
• The stickers came with bubblegum 
• The designs became popular choice for tattoos

To learn about the decline in sales of the stickers which caused it to be discontinued after December 1988 check out this URL which shows lots of interesting facts and is a great platform for sharing pictures: 

URL : http://metro.co.uk/2015/05/06/the-garbage-pail-kids-are-30-here-are-30-facts-about-the-trading-cards-5181301/

Photo sharing: 

The purpose of this blog post is to show you bloggers how you can utilize different photo sharing sites to spark interest in the comment section to help promote buzz. Most photo sharing sites create albums and galleries where visitors can view the pictures. You can tag photos with descriptive key words by what the topic the photo is which will make it a lot easier to locate any graphic photo. I will be sharing a powerful image from the garbage pail kids and explain what kind of effect it has, does it spark interest and how this photo generates leads and drives traffic. 

PHOTO: 

How Does Bloggy Bobby Align With Marketing Purposes? 

Here is an example of a photo from Garbage Pail Kids with a character called Bloggy Bobby! To see where I got this photo check out this site  

http://thehundreds.com/blog/the-hundreds-topps-garbage-pail-kids-bloggy-bobby/

How does this photo align with marketing purposes. There are many photo sharing sites for garbage pail kids which I will link further on in this blog. These photo sharing sites function like social networks. Many people were active and connecting with each other and the company with this brand, because it sparked interest, the pictures were intriguing and were unusual. They were collectibles, which showed how there was a benefit of getting these collectibles and they were conversation starters. These photos connected social communities because they were interacting with each other making meaningful comments on many pictures. This site shows the owner sharing a bunch of garbage pail kids and there is a lot of interaction in the comment section so take a look : 

URL: 

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/garbage-pail-kids/305040/

These pictures sparked interest because they were different. They were disturbing yet so interesting. They portrayed alternate situations and sometimes represented real people alternating them into garbage pail kids. This photo was based  to influence buyer mood which generated interest, online buzz and lead to sales. It generated interest because the pictures were eye-catching, you couldn't miss it. They incorporated high contrasting bright colors with a disturbing character in the center with a catchy title. The catchy title in this photo is bloggy bobby. Both words starting with B, and behind the buzz word has a lot of meaning. It influenced buyer mood because of how popular it was. Everyone was taking about garbage pail kids, people wanted to keep included in conversations during school. People were interested in the company background, and other characters they had. They left consumers wanting more and since they were collectibles it gave them something to keep and create memories with. It also influenced buyer mood because the characters it relate to any individual, you may have a favorite character for example bloggy bobby may have related to individuals who like to blog. The were curious and interested why they incorporated blogging in this photo. Therefore they will do research of the company which will influence buyer mood to purchase the product. For me when I saw this picture I was interested because I wanted to know more. I had lots of questions that sparked my interest in learning more about the brand, the company and the picture. For example some of the questions I had was: 

1. Why did they choose the buzz word Bloggy Bobby?
2. Is the name Bobby relating to a specific person or figure?
3. The logo on the laptop is suppose to be Apple?
4. Are all the gadgets like smart phones, computer, camera and tablet suppose to tell society how these gadgets are controlling us?
5. Why is Bobby's skin melting and on all the gadgets except for the phone he is taking a photo with?
6. Are they trying to say all these blogging technology is controlling our real selves and stripping away our true identities and forming us into a different self absorbed individual? 
7. Does this character show how we are creating toxic misrepresentation of us in the social media world? 
8. Is the bomb logo suppose to symbolize a certain company? 

Overall, the more I looked at this photo I was more interested in learning more because this photo sparked a lot of interest because it formulated a lot of questions for me. The company values and social presence represented in this photo. Lots of consumers may have a positive effect or negative effect on this photo. For me, it showed the truth about whats happening to individuals who spend too much time on social media. Although, there could be a potential risk in this photo because it has such a strong meaning behind it that some people may disagree with. 

This photo did generate leads because many of these sites that share these photos need the individuals email address, username, or have alerts to become members of a particular site. Once someone sees this photo they will want to learn more, therefore they will go on the site. Once on the site they will be exposed to the comment section which will show the garbage pail kids society communicating with each other and show other pictures and more information about the company and brand. 

So Did You Find This Photo Interesting? It Did Grab Your Attention?

Please let me know what were your first impressions of this photo of bloggy bobby! What kind of strategies were used in this particular photo to draw attention? Let me know what you think! This was defiantly an interesting topic to blog about! Stay tuned for my next post! Thank you!