by KRISTIN MORENCY GOLDMAN, senior advisor, strategic communications, The Toy Association
The Toy Association’s Toy Safety Awareness Month is set to take place once again this November, as the holiday shopping season gets underway, and the toy community is invited to be a part of the conversation.
Sponsored by The Toy Association and its playsafe.org website, Toy Safety Awareness Month will educate parents and caregivers about safe toy shopping (both online and in stores), age-appropriate toy selection for children, and how to play safely once the gifts are unwrapped.
Toy industry professionals are invited to share the helpful safety tips with consumers on their social media channels, websites, and in stores. A toolkit with the safety theme for each week, sample social media posts, and related assets — including the official logo, an infographic, broll, and more — will be shared with companies next month.
“As we approach the holidays, toys are top-of-mind for parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and other caregivers who plan to make the season magical for the kids in their lives,” says Adrienne Appell, executive vice president of marketing communications at The Toy Association. “The timing is also right to remind families of essential safety advice to help ensure playtime is both fun and safe. Following last year’s inaugural Toy Safety Awareness Month, we’re happy to continue the initiative on Nov. 1 and encourage the entire play community to get involved!”
Toy Safety Awareness Month is one component of The Toy Association’s fourth quarter safety activities, which include polling U.S. parents to gauge shifting attitudes about toy safety and sharing information based upon the findings; influencer partnerships; TV and radio interviews on timely safety topics, like the dangers of counterfeit toys lurking online; digital ads; and rapid response to non-governmental organization (NGO) “dangerous toy” lists.
“We really kick off the safety conversation in September with proactive messaging to ultimately head off NGOs, who tend to release their sensational and inaccurate reports just before Thanksgiving,” Appell says. “Putting our messaging out there early ensures that we are top-of-mind when media see the lists so that they reach out to us for a statement — or even better, so that reporters don’t cover the topic at all. In fact, over the past few years we have seen media coverage of the NGO reports drastically decline, proving that our education efforts have paid off.”
The toy industry is deeply committed to designing, producing, and delivering safe products that comply with more than 100 stringent federal safety standards and tests, but safety is a partnership shared by businesses and consumers. The Toy Association will continue to drive the safety conversation, ensure families are getting the safety information they need, and act as a credible resource for media outlets covering toys, play, and safety.
For more information about The Toy Association’s year-round activities, or to get involved in Toy Safety Awareness Month, contact Kristin Morency Goldman (kmorency@toyassociation.org).
This article was originally published in the September 2022 Fall Toy Preview edition of The Toy Book. Click here to read the full issue!
