write an advertisement to promote a toy that you have invented
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The commercial sale and marketing of children's toys only became popular in the mid-18th century. Prior to this, children had access to relatively few toys, and of those toys in use, most were hand-made, either by the child or a close relative.[1] Toys that were in common use from at least medieval times were very basic items such as hoops, tops, balls and dolls which could be turned out by local carpenters or coopers. A scattering of toy shops traded in 17th-century London, but were virtually unknown outside the capital. A small quantity of mechanical toys were imported from France and Germany, but these were expensive and beyond the reach of all but the wealthiest families.[2]
A broader interest in children's toys and games coincided with the emergence of a middle class when fewer children were expected to work. The 18th-century attitude to toys was that they should educational. Accordingly, toymakers designed their products to prepare children for adult life.[3] For example, a rocking-horse taught children to balance and prepared them for horse-riding. A doll prepared girls for motherhood and child-rearing while toy soldiers taught young boys about the military. Virtually, from the outset, commercially produced toys were remarkably gendered.[4]
Dinky die-cast truck with 1937 catalog
By the mid-nineteenth century, technological developments such as the invention of sheet metal stamping machines facilitated the mass production of inexpensive toys, notably tin toys or penny toys. Other technological developments included the advent of papier mache and "India" rubber moulding machines which effectively lowered the costs of manufacturing dolls. To stimulate demand for toys, it was necessary to encourage parents to purchase toys for their children. However, to do that, it was necessary to change attitudes to toys; to promulgate the idea that children were children rather than 'adults in training' and that toys were developmentally useful.[5]