MATTEL CHANGES DOLL LINE
By Adnews Staff
U.S.-based Mattel is breathing new life into Cabbage Patch Kids. The toy company has repackaged and revamped the Cabbage Patch line, and stocking store shelves in time for Christmas in the U.S.. Some dolls come with synthetic hair that can be styled and others are waterproof for the bath. Canada won't see the new dolls until next fall. Advertising will be run but it hasn't been decided yet whether Ogilvy & Mather of Toronto will do original creative or if the agency will localize U.S. ads. The U.S. agency for Mattel is Deutch Advertising of New York. GCI Communications of Toronto will handle the Canadian PR portion of the campaign. Mattel bought the Cabbage Patch Kids license from Hasbro in summer 1994. The dolls were a craze in 1983-84 when they amassed sales of $500 million annually for U.S.-based Coleco. When that company went belly up Hasbro took over most of its products, including Cabbage Patch Kids.