Marketing and all things related

Back in July, we told readers that Hasbro was replacing the paper money in their famous Monopoly board game with debit cards and an electronic card reader. We think this is no fun at all because you can do longer eyeball your opponents’ stack of bills to see where they stand. But we realize time marches on, so we are not surprise to learn from The New York Times, that Monopoly is changing their game player tokens as well. And five of the eight new tokens are familiar brands. You can now pass Go as “miniature versions of a Toyota Prius hybrid car, an order of McDonald’s French fries, a New Balance running shoe, a cup of Starbucks coffee or a Motorola Razr cellphone.” If you insist, you can also be a generic airplane, dog or computer. On the plus side, these brands did not pay for product placement. Rather, the new tokens were chosen by consumer vote in a promotion last spring. If you want to play the game with your grandchildren, the classic 1935 edition of the game will still be available with traditional game tokens including the thimble, battleship, boot, and so on. Photo Credit: The New York Times.