By Joseph Pisani, Retail Writer
NEW YORK (AP) --Is it Mr. Potato Head or not?
Hasbro created confusion Thursday when it announced that it would drop the "Mr." from the brand's name in order to be more inclusive and so all could feel "welcome in the Potato Head world." It also said it would sell a new playset this fall without the Mr. and Mrs. designations that will let kids create their own type of potato families, including two moms or two dads.
But in a tweet later that afternoon, Hasbro clarified that the Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head characters will still live on and be sold in stores, but under the Potato Head brand. In a picture posted on Twitter, the "Mr." and "Mrs." names are less prominently displayed at the bottom of the box, instead of the top.
"While it was announced today that the POTATO HEAD brand name & logo are dropping the 'MR.' I yam proud to confirm that MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD aren't going anywhere and will remain MR. & MRS. POTATO HEAD," the company tweeted.
The tweet came after news of the brand name change exploded on Twitter, with people asking if Barbie will change her name next. "I think Hasbro needs to drop the "Bro" and just be "Has,'" another person tweeted.
Hasbro appears to want to have it both ways: expand the brand, while not killing off its most iconic characters, which appeared in the "Toy Story" films.
"They are looking to broaden the franchise," said Robert Passikoff, founder of marketing consultancy Brand Keys. "You take the focus of what is essentially one character and now allow it to be a platform for many characters."
Kimberly Boyd, a senior vice president at Hasbro, said the intention of the brand name change was to be more inclusive and to have the characters still live within the Potato Head universe.
"It created a lot of excitement," she said about the reaction.
GLAAD, an LGBTQ advocacy group, applauded the more inclusive Potato playset.
"Hasbro is helping kids to simply see toys as toys, which encourages them to be their authentic selves outside of the pressures of traditional gender norms," said Rich Ferraro, GLAAD's chief communications officer, in a statement.
Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to today's kids and reflect more modern families.
"It's a potato," said Ali Mierzejewski, editor in chief at toy review site The Toy Insider, about the new playset. "But kids like to see themselves in the toys they are playing with."
Barbie, for example, has tried to shed its blonde image and now comes in multiple skin tones and body shapes. The Thomas the Tank Engine toy line added more girl characters. And American Girl is now selling a boy doll.
Mr. Potato Head first hit the toy scene in 1952, when it didn't even come with a plastic potato — kids had to supply their own vegetable to poke eyes, a nose or mustache into. Hasbro, which also makes Monopoly and My Little Pony, bought the brand and eventually added a plastic spud.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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