It's usually sometime around October 1 that I first start seeing the Halloween costumes on the three- and four-year-olds in my neighborhood. A little girl on a morning run September 29 was my first sighting: a slinky tiger suit. It was especially awesome worn with one sleeve off. Last night, my son's friend Jackson came over to play wearing his Flash costume. My girls are equivocating; princesses, Tinkerbell, or the all-pleasing little girl combo, the fairy princess?
Yep. It's all about princesses, and mermaids, and of course, princess mermaids this year. It's Ariel's fault, naturally, she of the Little Mermaid movie re-release and the incessant repetition of "Kiss the Girl" on Disney Radio. As for my four-year-old, he wants to be a pirate. More specifically, a Pirate of the Carivean (his interpretation of "Pirates of the Caribbean Dead Man's Chest" -- frighteningly enough, he knows to put "Dead Man's Chest" at the end of the title every time he mentions it). Or maybe, he tells me, Diego (of Go, Diego, Go!, part of Viacom, Inc. (NYSE:VIA)'s Dora the Explorer franchise on Nick Jr.).
When I saw the Wall Street Journal's piece on popular Halloween costumes this year [subscription required], it got me to thinking: could I recommend stocks based on my considerable Halloween costume field studies?
Most obviously, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) is a good bet for your Halloween investing dollar (is there such a thing?) It's princesses and mermaids and pirates, oh my! on the trick-or-treat path this season. But what else?
I'd go out on a limb and pick McDonald's Corporation (NYSE:MCD) based on my Halloween insights; the company may not have any hot characters in costume racks but it does have Happy Meal toys based on all the biggest media properties. You can get a treasure chest to match your pirate costume. Don't think I don't have one sitting on my desk for safekeeping right now ...
And how about Viacom? Every little child in my playgroup wants to dress up as Dora or Diego or Boots, or maybe one of the Wonderpets, or Backyardigans. If you don't have young children, please, just trust me on this, really, you don't want to know as much as I do about LingLing or Austin. Would I pick Viacom?
Nope. Firstly, Viacom hasn't done a great job of licensing the company's characters for Halloween or anything else (just take a glimpse into my campaign to get the company to make Dora character t-shirts for little boys), although this year the company is a bit more on the ball; and secondly, Sumner Redstone. Need I say more?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-16-2006 @ 10:11AM
Gary E. Sattler said...
When my brothers and I were just little guys, Halloween was big stuff. A time when all kids can dress in ways which are purely fun. The biggest thing for us though was that Halloween announced the coming of a special season. Chocolate became more of a staple than a treat. For two and a half months, from halloween through New Years our parents would turn their eyes away as we sampled many cocoa based treats.
So in an investment sense I would be duty bound to say:
Buy chocolate now... you know where it's found.
Just be sure you ease out around mid December when sales begin to decline.
Happy Halloween everyone!
oh and
Hey eBay,
BOO!
.