Yay! Let's hear it for Excrement!!!

Today a TV commercial caught my eye that I just can't resist commenting on. It also caught my ear. It seems the Barbie enterprise has added a new member to the family: Training Pups. Well, that sounds very cutsie, doesn't it? Turns out you get to feed the three little puppies water from a bottle....what little girl wouldn't enjoy that? But...then the really exciting part...let me quote the jingle:

"....what will he do? Number one or number two? ......what will it be? Puppy poo or puppy pee?"

Yes, it turns out you can buy a Barbie doll complete with puppies that simulate excrement production - or as the written product description so quaintly puts it..."reveal a surprise."

Oh, and they are nicely gendered too, according to the online toy description. The girl pup squats when you press on her, the boy pup needs to have his leg lifted (I wonder if he squats too? I mean, I'm not a vet and I haven't had a dog since I was a kid...and she was a she....but I don't think I've ever seen a boy dog poo with one leg up). And just to stay politically correct ...the third pup is somewhat genderless - it will relieve itself if you press its tummy. Hmmm. Yeah, I could see that.

Wow. I think I missed out on something very special in my childhood. I still have my Barbie dolls packed away somewhere, but they didn't have any of these special accessories. One even has super frizzy hair because I decided to wash it...but Barbie hair back then wasn't washable. Another one got an ink stain on its forehead so I used to pretend it was a bruise. Poor thing. I digress. But that's the joy of Barbie.

If you want to check out the commercial, it's been posted on YouTube (some of the comments are pretty funny):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow2X5tLYb3g&NR=1

Well, at least the advertising was clear about these toys! I wonder how many kids will actually keep the waste production on the accompanying paper though? There's the catch...only comes with two pieces of "colour changing newspaper" -  no word on if replacement papers are available. Other than that, I guess these puppies can only be abused as tiny, ineffective squirt guns.

I suppose one could argue this is only one step away from the baby dolls that would wet their diapers (or a "number two" step away). It just kind of worries me about what's next...oh, the mind wanders beyond this blog post - excuse me while I go take some notes.

Totallie my opinion. What do you think?