Last month, I ran a tiny media experiment in my own home: I recorded all of the toy commercials that my 3-year-old daughter watched in a one-week period, looking for patterns in how she was being ...

The very first toy TV commercial ever aimed at kids was created in 1952. It was by Hasbro – for Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. The commercial introduced the toy, then showed kids that the box came with ...