It's A Wrap

When the animated children's series "Mummies Alive" debuts this fall, its creators are hoping both boys and girls will be wrapped up in the mummies' exploits. Even so, it still seems more of a boy's world in cartoonville.

"From a television standpoint, girls will easily watch boys' series--but the converse is not necessarily true," says Joy Tashjian, president of merchandising and sales for Burbank, California-based DIC Entertainment LP. "Little boys tend not to watch girl-driven series. Unfortunately, for that reason, you don't see a whole lot of girls' series on the air."

As you might expect, gender differences can be observed in licensed products as well. "Very few products succeed that appeal to both girls and boys at a young age," says Tashjian. "We have tried very hard to incorporate girls' elements into `Mummies Alive.' For instance, one of the lead mummy characters is a female. However, if you asked Hasbro Inc., the master licensee, they would tell you this is a boys' action-figure line. At the retail [level], they still view this as a boys' action/adventure series."

This fall, we'll see if viewers agree.

This article was originally published in the September 1997 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: It's A Wrap.