Hasbro is using brand name products for token in its new Monopoly Here and Now game:
Five of the eight tokens in the new Monopoly Here and Now edition will be branded, offering players the chance to be represented by miniature versions of a Toyota Prius hybrid car, an order of McDonald’s french fries, a New Balance running shoe, a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Motorola Razr cell phone.
Hasbro Games senior vice president for marketing Mark Blecher assures us:
Hasbro chose not to brand all the new tokens, Blecher said, to minimize concerns that the new edition would be too commercialized.
Apparently, in Blecher’s world, 62.5% commercialized is acceptable, whereas 62.6% is not. However, as I am in marketing myself (obliquely), allow me to translate what Blecher really means:
Hasbro chose not to brand all the new tokens because it couldn’t find cross-promotional deals with an airline, a dog breeder, and a computer maker.
What wonderful news! Now you can play Monopoly a starbucks coffee cup (while you’re drinking a real one)!
And yes…as if Monopoly isn’t commercialized enough…
Geez. Soon it will be labeled as Fed Ex Monopoly, like the sports stadiums.
These things are getting a little silly.