Growing up with Logo’s (and Lego’s) in the 90′s

It is strange for me to think that most of my fellow students here at Ohio University grew up in the 1990′s. We are certainly an interesting group of kids. Many of us practically grew up watching MTV and Nickelodeon. In class, we discussed various brands and logo’s that may have an influence over other people’s perception of you. Whether us 90′s kids realized it or not, we had more then our own share of branded influence. One example that comes to mind is the Razor Scooter. Remember those? I was lucky enough to come across one on campus a few days ago, and trust me, I rode that thing around town (to the dismay of many motorists). Back in the day (for me, at least) you were ridiculed if you did not have a Razor Scooter. Elementary kids are very cruel. That being said, I personally never owned any Scooter period. God knows I wanted to!! I remember the Christmas of 1998 very well; I asked for a Razor Scooter (note how I specifically asked for a Razor brand, not an off brand. This reminds me of the BB gun in A Christmas Story.) My parents kept hinting at a purchase of the scooter, to my sheer excitement. Well, Christmas day arrived. Open the first present, no scooter. Second present, alas, still no scooter. Third present, my parents start to smile. “Oh!! They have been hiding the scooter from me this whole time, finally, this is it!!” I must have thought. They hand me a tiny package, my dreams immediately crushed. What is in this package you may ask? Oh, it’s a Razor Scooter alright, unfortunately it’s also smaller than an N64 cartridge. I shit you not, my parents bought me a Razor Scooter key chain (I also find it amusing the key chain was officially branded from Razor). Cruel parenting? Maybe. I still have yet to forget about that Christmas morning.

Another 90′s brand war existed between Nintendo and Sony. Nintendo had their famed Nintendo 64, and Sony had the original PlayStation. I for one will just admit straight off the bat that I was a Nintendo fan. Sony had the advantage of releasing their product a year prior to Nintendo in North America. PlayStation has overall dominated the number of sales between the two systems. Once again, in elementary school, you had to pick sides. There were rarely kids who “liked both”. You either loved Nintendo or Sony, and sometimes arguments would nearly amount to fist fights in my school. I remember not owning a PlayStation but owning a N64, this was the primary base for my side of the argument. On the other hand, I remember having a next door neighbor who had a PlayStation and we would constantly visit each others houses to play the systems we ourselves did not own. Kids were honestly judging one another based on their video game console of choice. Common arguments would sound like this: “Oh come on! N64 has Super Mario 64, Mario Kart, Glover, Zelda, 007, all of that stuff…oh and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater” “Yeah, well, PlayStation has Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, and Tomb Raider!…Oh! And we have Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater too, so shut up!!” It was brutal. Even today the argument still rages on between video game fans. Many of us look back at these times and think of it as a giant waste of time. Our generation has finally realized how ridiculous defining one another due to brands is, a step that comes with maturity. As Klein put it: “It makes a good deal of sense that high-school kids would have a more realistic grasp of the absurdities of branded life. They are the ones who grew up sold” (Klein 61). Yes, we were sold. I certainly was sold on those Razor Scooter commercials I saw on TV. I was also sold on the various hours of video game commercials I must have sat through. And don’t even get me started on Lego’s vs. Kenex… Clearly, the following child is sold.

….and this next video I’m posting solely because I find it ludicrous to combines Razor Scooter and U2.

Sources:

Klein, Naomi. “The Brand Expands: How The Logo Grabbed Center Stage.”

No Space.

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