Welcome to the 7th installment of the Worst Toys of 2012.
Today, I bring you The Gullible Award. This award honors the shrewdness of marketers and “dishonors” those of us who buy the item.
Without further delay, then, the 2012 Gullible Award goes to The Logo Board Game.
Here are 5 reasons why the Logo Board Game made the list of the Worst Toys of 2012:
- We are exposed to an estimated 5,000 marketing messages a day. Evidently that’s too few for some people, so why not increase their exposure to advertising and buy them The Logo Board Game?
- Why spend your time playing Trivial Pursuit and learning that Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings, when you or your child could “study” how goofy the Kool-Aid guy from the 1970’s commercials looks?
- Why read books with your children when you can work with them on a stack of what one reviewer called “capitalism flash cards”?
- If you’re hoping to play this with your family, your children better be at least thirty years old since many of the logos are from the 1980s or earlier. That’s the era of perms, people.
- The Logo Board Game features the logo of Go Daddy, a popular website hosting company. I’m not a fan of Go Daddy because I always forget the actual name of the website and google “Big Daddy” instead. Trust me: You get very different results when you search “Big Daddy.”
For further reading, check out other items that made the list of the Worst Toys of 2012.
Which board games do you love? despise?
Which games did you play as a kid?
Not technically a board game, but I have always hated Yatzee. For one thing, there really isn’t any skill involved – it is truly the luck of the roll. Also, when we were kids, my brother (who is super-competitive and was known to cheat to win) would always want to play with me and rub it in my face when he would win.
A couple of years ago, I wrote about our family’s first attempt at Trivial Pursuit: http://gumballgirl.wordpress.com/2011/01/18/a-trivial-matter-of-pronunciation/
Great post. I’ve mispronounced many things in my life. I still have trouble with reputable. I’m not reputable for my pronunciation, evidently.
I was the only one in my family to love Monopoly, that’s why I had to beg my parents to play, both of the times we played it. And I liked Visual Game, even if it was easy to argue with your team-mate. Trivial Pursuit was good too. Playing scrabble with my mom was frustrating, she always came up with ridiculously long words.
That’s as far as my memory go. Uh, I played Memory too. And Mastermind. I better stop 😀
Mastermind! I played that a lot. My daughter likes it now. I don’t know the Visual Game, though.
Like Pictionary, draw and guess. With some differences that make the product original and not a copyright infringment. O:)
We played this game with friends last new year, and gave up after about twenty minutes of pulling one US company after another out of the hat. It’s garbage.
Good point about the cultural relevancy.
Right now I am despising all board games we play. My 4 year old can’t play by the rules. ~ I wonder where she got that from? Candyland lasts all of 10 minutes. So we got her KerPlunk this year with some good-ol’ fashion pointy sticks and marbles to pick up (and lose).
Oh. Pointy stick fun. That’s when I’m thankful my kids wear glasses.
I have always been one to love board games, especially Monopoly and Trivial Pursuit, but this sounds mind-numbingly stupid and agree that this doesn’t seem to be one to waste my time on.
I noticed The Logo Game was marked down to $20 in a flyer this morning.
Our favorite game with my big kids were little kids: Masterpiece, the art auction game. My kids could tell a Monet from a Manet by the time they were seven.
That’s brilliant. I think I’d fail at that game.
I forgot about Masterpiece! I loved that game when I was younger!
Please make the bad game go away, Mommy!
Ha. Indeed.
I bought Chocolateopoly…. it’s like Monopoly, but the names have been changed to chocolate themed ones (like Death by Chocolate for Boardwalk and Chocoholics Anonymous for Free Parking). It’s fun, I just wish that it came with chocolate 😉
Does it market itself as “half the calories”? You ought to be able to eat the board pieces.
Oh blarg! It’s a board game now, too? During the summer it was one of the top smart phone apps. I griped to one of my very anti-marketing teachers about it because, at least on the phone app, you are literally taking part in a marketing study. All the information people playing the game give (as in, what logos do they most easily recognize, what ones are least recognizable, etc.) can immediately be given to companies so they can see if they need to rebrand. My gosh.
Aha! I love it when my readers teach me stuff. Fascinating in a very creepy way.
Sounds like a great way to make some bucks up front with all the advertising!
Ug – I’m so with you! I’m a scrabble gal, m’self, but also a big fan of Apples to Apples, which is not a board game, but… um, I’m thinking outside the board-game-box?
Bah! Hubby wanted to buy this game for our game nights. I talked him into Apples To Apples instead. That game is a blast!
Apples To Apples – yes! Now that’s a game that will never make this list!
Ahh. The TV Brainwashing Board Game. Swell.
Boo and Radley love to play this game on their mom’s phone. I never participate.
I do love me some Apples to Apples.
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