Scarlett Thomas

I know people who would make all sorts of assumptions about the clothes I am wearing. They would assume I had chosen a “look.”

Ideas are everything, everywhere, everybody at PopCo. We live to attract ideas: we are always in season for them; we fan our tail feathers and dance to attract them; our doors are always open if they decide to finally come over, drunk, when we had given up hope of seeing them that night

With the people at PopCo there is a dilemma. If you dress like them, you fit in. If you dress in an opposite way to them, or in things so ridiculous they could never consider wearing them, you are cool, daring and an individual—and therefore you fit in. My constant conundrum: how do you identify yourself as someone who doesn’t fit in when everything you could possibly do demarcates you as someone who does?

. In fact, these days, toys are more likely to involve fast-food promotions, film tie-ins, interactivity, “added-value,” super-branding and, of course, focus groups observed through one-way mirrors.

Although it is less than a hundred years old, PopCo has more folklore than some small countries, as well as a bigger GDP. The other major toy companies are the same.

You may have heard of things like “Geek Cool” and “Ugly Beauty.” Nothing is automatically uncool any more, which is another way of saying you can sell anything, if you know how

But those of us who work in the industry know that all marketing is ultimately aimed at children and teenagers. They’re the ones with the disposable income and the desire to fit in. They spread crazes like they were nits, and make their parents buy things they don’t need.

and our most financed research is in robotics—we simply make the things that kids want

The toy industry has two big advantages over other industries. Our products are the easiest to sell, and our customers are the easiest to sell to. That doesn’t mean that all products succeed, of course.

The survival kit is an experiment and contains items I think I might need in a survival situation, like plasters, water-purifying tablets, matches, candles, batteries, a small torch, a compass, a knife, several organic “energy” bars, a large sheet of plastic and some Rescue Remedy. Rescue Remedy is great for almost everything—shocks, sick pets, wilting plants—and since it is suspended in brandy, it also works as an emergency antiseptic.