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Peppers and Pollywogs is often asked how to find those really popular characters (think Elmo and Dora) for their upcoming kid’s party! It is often really difficult to find an actual Elmo or Dora, you may instead find Traveling Girl with Backpack or Red Puppet instead. Consumers often aren’t happy with these knock-off characters and prefer that the licensed character actually attend an entertain the children.
Recently, the WSJ spotlighted this problem, i.e the fact that entertainers are not legally allowed to appear as the actual character due to worries over trademark infringement. The WSJ Law Blog has an interesting take on the problem and the comments are worth a read too. It is unfortunate that the homemade character costumes often look odd and don’t really showcase the character that the kids know and love. The example of the 4-year-old’s party where Dora seemed scary is often a common problem when these entertainers are hired. It isn’t the entertainers fault, but rather the law. It is illegal for these entertainers to appear exactly as the character.
This is a very important point to keep in mind if you are looking to hire a character entertainer for your child’s next party. Make sure to review pictures of the entertainer and ask specific questions about how the costume appears. Doing this research will help to keep you from being disappointed. Also, note that the character entertainers will not look exactly as they appear on the TV shows. As a result, do not expect that it will. An alternative idea, is to create entertainment, i.e. games, crafts, and activities, that revolve around the favorite character, but do not include a character entertainer attending your party.
