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Sweet Victory: Hasbro Cooks Up Easy Bake Oven For Boys
Photo courtesy of Hasbro
Hasbro has agreed to create a boy-friendly version of their Easy Bake Oven toy after McKenna Pope's petition received over 40,000 signatures and gained the support of countless celebrity chefs.
Pope initially started the petition because she wanted to give her four-year old brother, Gavin, a toy to further inspire his love of cooking. (According to the Change.org petition, she'd sometimes find him warming tortillas on a house lamp.)
Due to all of the hullabaloo, Hasbro invited the 13-year old Pope and her family to its Rhode Island headquarters to meet with its Easy-Bake team. During the meeting, Hasbro executives showed off a prototype of their newest Easy-Bake: one that's a very gender-neutral black, silver and blue. The company has had around 12 different color schemes since it originated (we remember our yellow, red, and black model from the 80s), but the current scheme was pink and purple, which didn't quite attract the male audience.
But the company says it's been working on this model for some time, and was happy to hear Pope's thoughts.
Says the AP:
"Hasbro has been working on the new color scheme and design for about 18 months, and decided to invite McKenna to see it and offer her thoughts, said John Frascotti, Hasbro's chief marketing officer. McKenna said the company is doing everything she asked, including putting boys in the ads. "I think that they really met most or even all of what I wanted them to do, and they really amazed me," she said, adding that Gavyn thought the new design was "awesome."
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