Rainbow Brite Is Back!

I found this great site called MomSelect, that is designed to be a liaison between companies and moms/mom bloggers.  Marketers have realized that if a mom loves their product, they are most likely to share their experiences about the product with other moms.  MomSelect.com provides moms an opportunity to try product samples, take surveys, put on in-home parties, and participate in school and teacher programs.  For mom bloggers, they provide local mom blogger events, opportunities to participate in online media campaigns and other programs. 

Recently I received an e-mail from MomSelect about Hallmark’s re-introduction of Rainbow Brite.  Do you remember Rainbow Brite from the 80’s?  She was a cute little blond girl with rainbow colors all over her clothes.  I signed up to receive the Rainbow Brite Adventure Pack CD right away thinking it would be a great chance to catch up with Rainbow while at the same  time introducing this sweet little character to my six-year old daughter.

When the Rainbow Brite CD arrived, I found Rainbow’s older sister.  Hmmm, wait, no, it was Rainbow Brite herself.  She has grown up on me.  She is no longer the sweet little chubby girl she once was.  She is now a beautiful slender girl, probably in her early teens.  She has a lot more myticness (is that a word?) around her too.  Rainbow Brite and her friends are all beautiful with full wavy hair, make-up, and coordinated outfits, sprites (type of little animal), and ponies.  Although the characters are very cute, I can’t help but wonder about the higher standards of beauty our little girls look up to now in their dolls, cartoons, and TV shows compared to our childhood.  Cartoons and dolls are more sophisticated.  It used to be just Barbie that held our girls to high beauty standards, now it’s becoming nearly every cartoon character/young celebrity they watch.

Nonetheless, I digress.  The Rainbow Brite Adventure Pack CD included Rainbow Brite’s theme song, and a short video explaining what’s happened to Rainbow Brite all these years (she went back to Earth and became a normal girl and her memory of her galactic past had been erased).  The CD also had games, pictures to print and color, puzzles to solve, etc.  Pretty much all of the activities are available at RainbowBrite.com. 

OK, despite what I felt about how Rainbow Brite has grown up, the real test came to when my 6 year old daughter got to meet her.  And what do you think one of my daughter’s first comments was?  “She’s pretty.”  Great, just what I wanted to hear.  Nonetheless, my daughter had a lot of fun playing the games, playing the theme song, and learning about Rainbow and her friends. 

I did some searching on Google to see what other moms think about the new Rainbow Brite.  As you can imagine, there is a lot of controversy.  

A Mom’s Perspective

Many times companies bring back toys from mom’s childhoods to help them reminisce about their favorite toys and all the fond memories.  Of course, their goal is to entice moms to want the same experience for their own children.  Obviously, times have changed from generation to generation, so companies want to make changes characters that appeal to both.

Fortunately, Rainbow Brite continues to emphasize friendship, helping others, brightening another’s day, etc.  Nonetheless, judging from mom’s reactions, perhaps Hallmark went to far in modernizing sweet little Rainbow Brite.  Their desired effect of moms buying Rainbow Brite dolls for their little girls is likely to be reduced.

Interested in reading more about what others think of the new Rainbow Brite?  Join the Rainbow Brite FaceBook Fan site .  Need more updates throughout the day, join become friends with Rainbow Brite on Twitter.  Rainbow Brite is very social these days on the Internet with numerous fan clubs, YouTube videos, and discussions about the old and new Rainbow Brite.  Even though she’s been off the scene for 25 years, her fans have never stopped talking about her.

Write a comment to tell us about your memories of Rainbow Brite or your thoughts of the new Rainbow Brite.