After 70 years, Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head will have no gender- it's just gonna be Potato Head now! Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head aren't going anywhere, they're just changing the name of the brand. Hasbro's hopes is that the potato play can be a little bit more flexible and diverse! Not just limited to a Mr. and a Mrs.!
On Thursday, the company announced that it would be rebranding the iconic quick-change toy to break away from traditional ideas about gender roles and family structures — it celebrated the wedding and subsequent anniversaries of “Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head,” and it sold boxed sets of the couple and their offspring, “Spud” and “Yam.” (Yes, there was even a picket fence.)
Soon, Hasbro hopes the potato play can be a little more flexible and diverse, such as Mr. and Mr. Potato Head weddings or single spud-parent families. The move reflects a growing appetite for products that offer more flexibility around identity, from a surge in popularity in makeup for men to Mattel’s diversified Barbies and a boy “American Girl” doll. One in 6 adults in Generation Z identifies as LGBTQ, according to a Gallup survey, providing some of the most detailed and up-to-date estimates yet on the size and makeup of the nation’s LGBTQ population.