Prompt Cast
The History and Evolution of the Easy Bake Oven
TLDR The Easy Bake Oven, created by Kenner, was a popular toy that used a light bulb as a heating element. It underwent several changes over the years, including a redesign in 2006 and the release of a gender neutral version in 2013.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
This episode is about the Easy Bake Oven and how it was created by Kenner, a company known for making Star Wars toys.
04:41
Kenner, the company behind the Easy Bake Oven, was known for creating toys that mimicked adult objects and the idea for the oven came about when a salesman saw pretzel vendors using a light bulb to keep their pretzels warm.
09:16
The Easy Bake Oven used a light bulb as a heating element to make it seem safe to parents and the first model in 1963 used two 100 watt incandescent bulbs for even heat distribution.
13:51
The Easy Bake Oven was initially designed with two bulbs for even heat distribution, but a designer named Charles Cummings later engineered it to use just one bulb by creating a convection current, and he also held the patent for the add-on popcorn maker.
18:16
In the second year of production, the Easy Bake Oven sold 1.5 million units and also sold a lot of supplementary products such as cake mixes, and the advertising for the oven targeted both kids and parents.
22:33
The Easy Bake Oven did not evolve with changing gender roles until the early 2000s when they tried to get boys involved with a separate oven called the Queasy Bake.
26:50
In 1967, General Mills bought Kenner and partnered with Betty Crocker to launch branded mixes for the Easy Bake Oven, later expanding into licensing deals with McDonald's and Pizza Hut, resulting in over 100 million mixes sold.
31:17
In 2006, the Easy Bake Oven underwent a redesign to comply with new light bulb requirements, resulting in a front-loading oven with a ceramic heating element, but this design allowed kids to easily burn themselves, leading to a recall of a million ovens.
35:30
In 2013, a girl named McKenna Pope started a petition to get Hasbro to make a gender neutral version of the Easy Bake Oven, resulting in a new black version of the oven being released.
40:10
The transcript ends with ads for Discover credit cards, CVS, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Categories:
Society & Culture
