1. POKEMON Culture

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgINGJsAjA0

3. AGENCY

4. AGENCY

5. NOT A POKEMON CARD
“These Nintendo writers are
regular psychologists of the
prepubescent mind.”
-April 09, 1999
Laura Sessions Stepp
The WashingtonPost

6. Corporation

7. Consumer > Corporation

8. Market > Consumer > Corporation

9. “There are thousands and
“It is very difficult for any
thousands of competitors for
franchise to come into
that honored slot. Even more
prominence in the kid world,
difficult is trying to keep within
to be forefront in their minds”
a kid consciousness for more
than the 18 months or three
years these things normally
last.”
Gene Del Vecchio
The New York Times
“Pokemon is Catching, and Keeping, Them”

10. AGENCY

12. “I wish to argue that parents
and teachers should worry less
about the debilitating effects
“I think that the appeal to
on children – especially
children of gender stereotypes
affluent children – of toys and
conveys an important message
television and worry more
for adults: things have not
about ways to improve access
changed as much as we might
to education and
wish to believe.” p.230
entertainment for children
against whom the odds are
already stacked.” p.234
Ellen Seiter
Sold Separately
Rutgers University Press, 1993

13. ??

14. This Guy

16. Card Game

17. Card Game
Video Game

18. TV Show
Card Game
Video Game

19. Social Economical
Educational Market

20. Social

21. “This is the age when children start looking for ways to be friends with other
children – and exchanging ideas about Pokemon seems to give them the
entrance to these early friendships.”
-Otto Weininger (Psychologist at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education)
“Pokemon: Is it good for kids?” The Toronto Star
November 9, 1999

23. “Psst, afraid to ask the kids? Read on”
“But perhaps that is part of the attraction to children: The
Pokemon Universe is so otherworldly that parents and other
adults watching from the outside have a tough time getting in.”
Steve Dawson
The Straits Times
February 9, 2000

25. A six-step program for your Poke-aholic
Step 1: Little Johnny has to recognize and admit he has a problem, says Jay.
Step 2: Suggest a new activity to replace the Pokemon obsession.
Step 3: Take a hard look at yourself and how you’re contributing to your child’s problem.
Step 4: Resist the urge for an all-out pocket-monster purge.
Step 5: Act now, and understand the likelihood of relapse, especially at the holidays.
Step 6: If all else fails, evolve into an adult Pokemon expert.
The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)
November 13, 1999

27. Educational

28. “In defense of Pokemon: A 10-year-old says that
far from disrupting his education, Pokemon has
taught him skills”
Adam Rogers-Green
December 14, 1999
The Globe and Mail (Canada)

29. OR

30. Games…..
Useful?

31. “Cognitively, this is where kids are at – they like
ordering and computing and categorizing, so the
whole Pokemon fantasy is appealing.” – Christine
Wekerle of York University
Louise Brown
The Toronto Star
“Pokemon: Is it Good for Kids?”

32. Economical

33. “Game Theory: Making a
Fortune, One Monster at a time”
“At some point hunting wild Pokemon
stops making economic sense. You can
get so much farther as a day trader,
churning high-growth Pokemon on the
open market.”
“No doubt, a Pokemon futures market
is imminent. And these are 10-year
olds. In 20 years, these people are
going to be running the stock market.
Heaven help the Dow.”
J.C. Herz
The New York Times

34. Gary Cross
The Cute and the Cool
Oxford University Press, 2004
“The commercialization of wonder was a
product of aggressive marketing, evolutionary
media, and an increasingly child-centered,
child-indulgent family. Manufacturers did not
merely manipulate nostalgic and insecure
parents, or exploit naïve and impressionable
children. Rather, children’s consumer goods
and media met the changing needs of a new
family as it evolved after 1900.” .p202

35. Market

37. “FAD”?

38. Results in ProQuest for Search Query
Pokemon by Year
Hint: This is
2000.

41. Intent

42. “When you create something thinking first of how it
will benefit you, you are making the kind of product
that is soulless and unethical.
When you create something thinking first about the
value it will provide customers you are doing
something that builds lasting loyalty.”
-Raph Koster

43. Creator
Distributor
Consumers

44. Thank you