My friend texted this morning asking if we had an Aldi to get Kevin the carrot. I hadn't heard of it (apart from the adverts) so went to have a look for her. There were dozens of the £3.99 ones and the evil parsnips but none of the big ones which are apparently what all the fuss is about. They are now selling on e-bay for up to £300!! Madness!
I prefer parsnips to carrots any day. Should I be offended at the way the parsnip is portrayed? It seems to be the thing to do nowadays to be offended at a lot of things :-)
I'm so glad it's not a country-wide obsession and I like Sue's alansugaresque business proposal!
And I do sympathise with the victims of trends and pester power.
Apart from the cuddly vampire bat , most of dgc's soft toys represent animals or characters from stories, books and films.
Few of of them are ever played with or cuddled and the sad old one-eyed minion still has his pristine label and has been dangling from a wardrobe door handle since he was carried home in brief triumph to granny's from some funfair or other where a lot of cash changed hands (after granny was ganged up upon) to ensure he could be won.
I remember my DS's teddy being universally loved to bits and played with til the fur wore off and the growl could only be detected as a mild burp if an older child accidentally stood on it.
A toy like that would have been worth queueing in the rain for.
Good lord, I went to Aldi this afternoon and saw loads of soft toy carrots. I'd have bought a couple of dozen to sell on eBay if I'd known they were A Thing!
My fancy was rather taken by the parsnip toys, though, and now I read on the linked article that in fact it's a naughty parsnip.
The problem I used to find was that I could get the Christmas shopping sorted weeks in advance when I was working, trying to buy just what the DC said they wanted, then there would be a craze just before Christmas and they changed their minds and wanted the latest craze.
Same thing happened, as I recall, with My Little Ponies, Cabbage Patch dolls, Transformers and various other 'must have' toys of our DC's childhood. In fact, it seems to happen every year. It's a tribute to the idiocy of parents, really and the marketing skill of the companies who make and sell the things. Nothing like a 'shortage' to create demand and publicity.
This story has been running for about an hour on the BBC. Apparently, people are forming long queues at shops and even fighting because Kevin the Carrot soft toys - value £3.99 - have been snapped up online and a supply shortage is feared.
Am I the only person who thinks this is completely bonkers?
I know the Kevin character and his "wife" Katie and three carrot children feature in TV adverts at Christmas, but considering what actually happens to most carrots on the big day it seems a strange trend in the first place.