Boys Just Wanna Bake Too: Hasbro to introduce a more manly
color scheme for the Easy-Bake Oven.
McKenna Pope of New Jersey wanted to give her little brother,
Gavyn, an Easy-Bake Oven for his birthday, but felt that there should be more than
just two choices of pink or purple. The
13-year-old pre-teen took matters into her own hands and not only contacted
Hasbro requesting more gender-neutral colors for the oven, but also presented the company
with a 40,000-signature petition backing her up. Turns out, Hasbro had already been working on
updating the popular product and the company invited McKenna and her family to
the their Pawtucket, Rhode Island, headquarters to view a proto-type of a
new design and color for the oven.
McKenna met with the Easy-Bake product team and
offered her suggestions for improvement, including a request to feature boys in
advertising for the oven. Both boys and
girls have always played with the Easy-Bake Oven, no matter the color scheme,
but only girls have been featured in advertising. Hasbro has agreed to do almost all of what
McKenna has requested, including featuring boys in their advertising.
A cool black, silver and blue version of the Easy Bake Oven
will be unveiled in February, 2013, at Toy Fair in New York. We can't wait to see it! Budding chefs will have to wait a tad longer until the summer of
2013.
Awesome job, McKenna! Thanks!
