I never got the idea that Madame Alexander dolls were meant to be played with, but it’s true there were other dolls that weren’t white on the market.
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Context is key. You can use another company’s trademarked logos and such as part of a parody as long as it’s not used in such a way that a reasonable person would believe the company is really behind the parody product or service. For example, Saturday Night Live gets away with using real logos in parody commercials all the time, often in sketches that are unflattering critiques of the real-life companies.
In practice it helps if you have an army of lawyers to defend your claim, and even then the results may depend on which court hears the case. In terms of this particular case it calls to mind several “Barbie” parodies which spawned lawsuits that were variously upheld, rejected, or settled out of court over the years.
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Yeah I knew they have specific dolls with names and books attached. That is weird she is the only non-smiling one… maybe her story is horrible enough she doesn’t have a reason to smile… 
I THINK my kiddo has Kaya’s book, actually.
I’m imploring her to get around to reading this book, so then I can read it. It is a historical fiction book of an event that if not her direct ancestors, then distant cousins experienced. (I think our direct ancestors were in the 1840 purge to Oklahoma). It has a lot of historical photos and illustrations, as well as an appendix full of added information. If your kiddo is into Native American stories, this one is rated for ages 8-12.
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Sadly Doogle is no longer. It was the classic parody search engine referring to “Father Ted”'s Father Dougal “Yer right there,Ted!” Maguire.
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Indeed; though back in the day my mom had to search high and low for dolls that had any diversity, and she snapped up any product that even vaguely resembled her biracial children.
Hell, I still remember getting the first Black Barbie, (not Christy, not Skipper, but Barbie) which didn’t come out until 1980.
Obviously, Mattel was not a pioneer in this regard, but I give them a modicum of credit for the diversity expansion they’ve been doing for the last decade or so.
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To me it looks like she is smiling gently, just not a full grin.
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Welcome to BoingBoing, comrade.
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Or, as we like to call it, Hobby Lobby.
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I find that people making parodies like this generally have little experience with or understanding of the brand/product—probably because they’re usually dudes.
The American Girl historical characters are all uniformly 9-12 years old, and while the Girl of the Year line may honor a girl a bit older occasionally… it still isn’t adult “career”-focused like Barbie. It’s actually kind of funny since they were designed to fill that exact pre-teen representation gap in a doll market dominated by baby dolls and adult fashion dolls (like Barbie), but everyone still tries to pigeonhole everything into those two categories.
Maybe there will be a 2020 coronavirus pandemic doll someday, but it would be a young girl struggling to balance the shutdown of her normal school year, trying to sort true from false information while questioning what sources to trust, and seeing others make choices that don’t make sense. She might have an essential worker parent, or she or a friend might lose family members to the illness. The history aspect (commercialism aside) of American Girl doesn’t fuck around, though it tries to keep a level of age-appropriate themes for its audience.
But “lol dolls,” amirite.
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Tom Petty does not deserve any of this.
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True, it isn’t his fault Karen is freefalling.
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I have never seen Madame Alexander dolls! I would have happily bought them for my daughter back in the 80s when the most diversity was that one brown-skinned Cabbage Patch Doll in Toys-R-Us that was being fought over by 17 mothers, grandmothers, and aunties. . 
She had a shelf of dolls to look at as well as one of dolls to play with.
When my daughter was babysitting, she became a fan of American Girl dolls, because of the books and the historical angle. Yes, they’re expensive, but luckily she was beyond the age of asking for dolls for Xmas.
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Oh, but they do. Marketers love data because then they can granularly choose who to market to (or rather, who their clients can get to buy their stuff).
Psychographic marketing takes into consideration:
- What your customers value in life
- Pain points they face
- Why they act the way they do
- How you can help in a way they will find valuable
Based on those factors, you can adjust your offers, marketing messages, and advertising channels to provide maximum value to your target audience and connect with them on a more personal level.
So I’m sure someone has come up with multiple Karen markets, because the Karens of Instagram in California are different from the Karens of Facebook in Nebraska.
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As alluded up-thread, historically they were marketed more towards collectors than as toys for children, though that’s changed over the last couple of decades.
Whoo, I remember that craze, even though I personally wasn’t into the cabbage patch kids like that.
These days there’s thankfully much more range of representation amongst dolls, through various brands.
My own daughter was never big on AG, Barbie, or baby dolls in general; instead she preferred Lego Friends sets, Bratz, and later, Monster High dolls… all of which offer a wide array of demographics.
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That may be a fantastic band name but I sure as hell aren’t going to search for them on Instagram.
The horror…
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That image says "Shut Up! I’ve spent 5 minutes “researching” on the internet and I think I’m at least as qualified as someone who spent 8 years going to school to practice medicine.
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No one is mocking dolls. They are mocking Karens.
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Karens love shopping, I’m sure they’d buy all the dolls.
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Karen is apparently also a hoarder…
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