Hot Wheels?

Hey,

I had a speaker in one of my classes yesterday who brought up several interesting points relating to globalization and the way the world interacts. He told us a story about something they were doing with Hot Wheels toy cars. Mattel decided that they wanted to create stories and videos to package with their cars when they are sold. This guy's company created characters to drive the cars, mostly guys, but also a few girls and wrote stories about them. When they went to pitch the ideas, the problem came up that they could not sell cars with female drivers globally, because some countries do not allow women to drive.

I thought this was a very interesting point. I knew that companies had to do market research for the varies countries they sell to and that they have to adjust their products to sell in different countries. However, it seems crazy that children in these countries cannot even play with toy cars that have female drivers. I know our cultures are very different, but I wonder how you guys feel about this. Is this a common occurence? Do you know that these types of things are happening? Are we forcing Americanization by even wanting to sell toy cars with female drivers because women here can drive? Just things that make me wonder . . .

Andrea