The American toy company Mattel manufactured and sold Cool Shoppin’ Barbie in 1997. The fashion doll came with her own clothing store that sold shirts, skirts, sunglasses, shoes, perfume, and purses and had a cash register, bar code scanner, and credit card reader. Barbie had her own MasterCard, and would say “credit approved” when a button was pushed.
Parents and consumer advocates complained that Barbie should not encourage excessive spending and credit debt or advertise the MasterCard brand to young children. While Cool Shoppin’ Barbie sold well during the 1997 holiday season, the contract between Barbie and MasterCard was not renewed the next year—making the toy a sought after collectible.
Elsie the Cow marionette is hand carved from wood and operates using a 6-piece wooden airplane control and a separate one-piece bar control with 13 strings. Her cow head with the distinctive horns is on a swivel neck and her jaw is moveable. She is wearing a refined blue suit, white gloves, high heels and a black net hat. She was used to promote Borden products. From the late 1930s to the 1950's puppets became popular for use in advertising.
Elsie is one of large group of advertising puppets used by Elizabeth and Frank D. Haines, a husband and wife team of puppeteers. They operated a puppet troupe in and around Philadelphia, and performed on television and in window displays to subsidize their business. While they were not fond of using their puppets for advertisements, Elsie the cow is just one of their puppets used to promote a popular brand of milk products--Borden.
