Published: April 1, 2000

Pikachu Goes To School

Marketing products to children has reached a new high, as Pokémon has expanded from a Japanese Nintendo game; to trading, playing, and collectible cards; to T-shirts and other merchandise; to a blockbuster film. It's all pitched to America's youngest consumers (even kindergartners), who now command millions in sales through the efforts of parents to please their kids.

For those not in the know, Pokémon (short for Pocket Monster) is a Japanese cast of monster characters that can be collected as color cards ($4 for a set of 11 at Toys R Us). There are 151 characters with different powers, values, weights, weaknesses, categories, and sub-categories. The character Charizard, for example, is a flying dragon with a burning tail; Snorlax, an overenergized cat; and Pikachu, an Asian version of Pooh Bear. Some cards are rarer than others and thus more valuable: A single card showing Hitmonlee, a collector's item, is worth $10 on the trading market, and a few of the rarest species have sold for $100 or more. Since Pokémon series are discontinued one by one, the cards gain value over time and are peddled to the highest bidder.

Given the massive assault on our children's senses, we shouldn't be surprised that Pokémon is having fascinating, complex effects on their education and, potentially, on their...