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Speaker 1: From the new erum and new still come to me.

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Speaker 2: Hey there, I'm Emily Waterson, and yes I'm back by

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Speaker 2: unpopular demand. I'm sure by now you've at least heard

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Speaker 2: the term la booboo, and if you haven't, congratulations. These

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Speaker 2: charming collectibles have taken the world by storm, and they're

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Speaker 2: not just for kids.

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Speaker 3: Shut up, shut up. Oh my god, I literally got

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Speaker 3: the thick red one. Stop there right now.

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Speaker 2: But these cuddly creatures aren't just cute, they're controversial too.

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Speaker 4: Can't be the only person that find hates those laboo

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Speaker 4: boo dolls. Every time I see one, my face turned

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Speaker 4: the red and steam comes out of my fucking eyebill.

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Speaker 3: Influencers are all over them.

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Speaker 2: Dads have La booboos dangling from their backpacks, while others

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Speaker 2: just find them cringe worthy. But you can't deny these

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Speaker 2: little critters are in high demand. So what is the

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Speaker 2: deal with these plush toys and why are they taking

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Speaker 2: over the lives and wallets of so many?

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Speaker 3: We'll find out in just a moment.

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Speaker 2: Joining me now is news dot com dot au journalist

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Speaker 2: Mary Madigan.

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Speaker 3: Welcome, Mary, Oh, thank you for having me. So you

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Speaker 3: wrote an article.

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Speaker 2: Recently on an Aussie businessman who is just made of

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Speaker 2: killing with this new craze at the moment, Can you

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Speaker 2: tell me a little bit about la boo boos and

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Speaker 2: exactly what they are?

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Speaker 4: Okay, Well, first of all, he calls himself the labooboo Dealer,

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Speaker 4: which I'm low he obsessed with.

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Speaker 3: I love that.

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Speaker 4: And if they're buy a brand called PopMart, which is Chinese,

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Speaker 4: and they've just kind of become this cultural phenomenon. I mean,

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Speaker 4: everyone has different theories on why they're hitting such a nerve.

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Speaker 4: I think my favorite one is probably the recession idea,

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Speaker 4: which is like when financial times are tough. So back,

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Speaker 4: it used to be like people buy lipsticks because it's

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Speaker 4: like a small luxury you can still afford. And I

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Speaker 4: think labooboos have kind of become that they're around fifty

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Speaker 4: to sixty dollars, which I know is not cheap for

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Speaker 4: a fluffy toy, but most people can probably spare that, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: And so I think it's become this thing where people

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Speaker 4: can buy something that's collectible and feel special, but it's

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Speaker 4: not hundreds and hundreds of dollars, because I think at

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Speaker 4: the moment, people can't afford like to like I was

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Speaker 4: met with the other day, which is obviously.

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Speaker 1: Very fastwell problem.

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Speaker 4: But when I was at university, I always wanted to

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Speaker 4: buy like a Gucci handbag, right and at that point

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Speaker 4: there were like two thousand dollars and I couldn't afford it.

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Speaker 4: And flash forward, I own like a decent wage now

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Speaker 4: and I still can't afford a Gucci handbag and they're

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Speaker 4: about five or six thousand dollars, and so I think

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Speaker 4: no one can reach that anymore. So things like La

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Speaker 4: Boo boos are a way to kind of attach a

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Speaker 4: bit of like clout or like I'm doing well or

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Speaker 4: look at me y.

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Speaker 3: They're just sort of accessing that same feeling and a small.

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Speaker 4: Life, yes, because you buy those things, don't you, So

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Speaker 4: people can go, oh, that's a Gucci handbag, and it's

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Speaker 4: the same with a little Oh she's got a little people.

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Speaker 4: I think people are chasing that feeling still, it's just

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Speaker 4: this is how they can afford.

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Speaker 1: To do it.

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Speaker 3: So explain to me exactly what they are.

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Speaker 2: And then this is interesting about the kind of status

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Speaker 2: symbol because there are some fake ones, but we'll get

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Speaker 2: to that in a bit.

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Speaker 3: What do they actually look like.

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Speaker 4: A little monsters. They kind of remind me of like

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Speaker 4: beanie babies. Baby baby, Yeah, you have to be a

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Speaker 4: certain age. They're just like little months. They come in

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Speaker 4: like different colors. There's like different vibes with them, and they.

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Speaker 1: Have like they're not like traditionally pretty. They're kind of

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Speaker 1: like ugly cute, yes.

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Speaker 3: And do you think that's an element of it?

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Speaker 1: I think people like it.

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Speaker 4: And I think, like, like I mentioned the beanie baby thing,

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Speaker 4: I think they kind of are that version of beanie baby.

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Speaker 4: Like I think it's that people want something cute, yeah,

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Speaker 4: and ugly and a bit like a bit edgy.

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Speaker 3: It's probably kind of easy. There's not much thought going

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Speaker 3: on with them. They look nice, they're small, and they're

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Speaker 3: a bit kind of like it's accessible, I guess.

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Speaker 1: Dare I say quirky? Do you know what I mean?

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Speaker 3: Let's not get wild.

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Speaker 1: But I think that's.

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Speaker 4: Kind of like it reminds me like the millennial cringe

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Speaker 4: and when it used to be like if you had

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Speaker 4: like a little front fringe, you're like the quirkiest thing

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Speaker 4: in the world.

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Speaker 1: I think labooboos are that for like mainstream girlies.

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Speaker 3: I think that's on the money. Yeah, for sure.

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Speaker 2: So that these little toys you collect them, you don't

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Speaker 2: know what you're gonna get.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so that's I think, like it's a genius marketing

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Speaker 4: tactic because I think now, I mean for me, it

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Speaker 4: was probably Instagram was where you would like show off,

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Speaker 4: but I think now for gen zs and like, are

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Speaker 4: there anyone of any people do it on TikTok And

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Speaker 4: what they're constantly doing, which has been a craze for

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Speaker 4: a long time now, is these unboxings, which is like

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Speaker 4: for any brand, like you might be getting like a

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Speaker 4: new bag and you'll like show yourself opening it and

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Speaker 4: your reaction to it, or you'll be getting closed and

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Speaker 4: you'll like show your reaction to close, and that's been

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Speaker 4: like a craze for years now, this kind of try

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Speaker 4: on unboxing thing, And that's what's genius about these because

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Speaker 4: you don't know what you're gonna get. That adds right

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Speaker 4: a whole new layer to unboxing because then people like,

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Speaker 4: oh my god, I got a really rare one or

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Speaker 4: I got like a super mainstream one, or so that

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Speaker 4: adds to it because it gives them a whole new

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Speaker 4: thing to work with.

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Speaker 1: Like it's really clever.

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Speaker 2: It is really clever, and I guess they're just buying

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Speaker 2: it to be a part of it, as opposed to

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Speaker 2: like for that specific one.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, they're just and I think, like Sofa Dofa, who's

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Speaker 4: a really popular at shiny influencer, there's millions and millions

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Speaker 4: of like likes and stuff on TikTok. She like unboxed

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Speaker 4: like three or four at once, and I was like

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Speaker 4: reacting to each one, like, oh, I got this one,

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Speaker 4: and then I got this one, and like that, like

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Speaker 4: the excitement and then like the conversation about which one

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Speaker 4: she's like better.

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Speaker 1: And I just think it's like it's.

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Speaker 4: The perfect content gift, which is a thing to say

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Speaker 4: but which is very twenty twenty five men to say,

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Speaker 4: but it is. It's the perfect content gift. I got

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Speaker 4: sent one after I did that story on the Business Guy.

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Speaker 4: He sent me a la boo boo wow.

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Speaker 1: And I know, and I cannot tell you.

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Speaker 4: I mean, like obviously, when you're in a newsroom, one

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Speaker 4: of the upsides is people get send things a lot, right, Yeah,

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Speaker 4: I cannot tell you the hysteria when I came in

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Speaker 4: and I was like, guys, I've got a la booo,

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Speaker 4: Like everyone's like gathered around everyone to see.

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Speaker 1: What I got. Even people that are like, oh I.

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Speaker 4: Don't want one, they're so cringe, they still were like okay,

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Speaker 4: like show me, can I just touch it though, because

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Speaker 4: they want to see the heart.

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Speaker 1: Even if you don't get it, you want to know

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Speaker 1: what you're not getting.

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Speaker 3: It is so fascinating, Like how contagious it seems to

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Speaker 3: be that everyone, even if you don't have one, you

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Speaker 3: know about it, or you you're.

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Speaker 4: Aware of it, or even if you want to look

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Speaker 4: down on it, you still want to talk about how

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Speaker 4: you're better than that.

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Speaker 3: Yes, do you know what I mean?

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Speaker 1: Like you want to be like I'm above labooboos.

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Speaker 3: Yeah I'm not mainstream? Yeah yeah yeah.

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Speaker 2: What is the most that you've heard someone spend on it?

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Speaker 2: Like what are we talking from? Plenty of labooboo dealer.

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Speaker 1: Thousands people spend thousands on really rare ones.

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Speaker 3: That's crazy, Like I.

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Speaker 4: Think he was saying, like, you know, up to six hundred,

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Speaker 4: but then they're special ones you might spend like a

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Speaker 4: thousands that are very limited a dish. And I think

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Speaker 4: it's become this crazy resell market of like on deepop

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Speaker 4: and stuff like that where you can spend big bucks

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Speaker 4: on them.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean there's a video up on news dot

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Speaker 2: com dot a U at the moment of a mother

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Speaker 2: opening one and absolutely losing her mind. Yes, if you

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Speaker 2: want to see that video heads news dot com dot you,

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Speaker 2: but Mary to describe the footage for those listening.

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Speaker 3: She opens it up to reveal a brown la boo boo. Yes,

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Speaker 3: what does this mean?

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Speaker 4: It's like it's a really rare one. So that's why

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Speaker 4: she's going like crazy crazy crazy. But I think, I

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Speaker 4: mean I've just said to you before, like I wish

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Speaker 4: I felt that about.

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Speaker 1: Anything in my life.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, Like I'm kind of loving even though I have

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Speaker 4: a lat boo boo, but I wouldn't have gone out

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Speaker 4: and bothered to buy one. From being really honest or

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Speaker 4: maybe I'm just saying that, but I will say, like

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Speaker 4: I'm loving having one.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm kind of wanting to come and look at

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Speaker 3: yours afterwards.

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Speaker 4: You Also, I think a key factories are like a

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Speaker 4: key chain, right, so you like add it to your

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Speaker 4: bag or whatever. And I've seen like a lot of

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Speaker 4: girls like adding it to the like designer bag. They

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Speaker 4: put their little booo on like it's very.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like a form of I guess self expression

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Speaker 2: without going too far out of the bounds, you know, yes.

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Speaker 4: And you can also take it off, like if you're

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Speaker 4: sick of it, you're not doing permanent damage, Shan, I

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Speaker 4: think you own so if you get over, if the

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Speaker 4: trend ends, like just takeing off for hearing.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. And do you think that's why it's gone so global? Yeah.

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Speaker 4: I think people look for joy in tough times. I

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Speaker 4: really do think that. And I think at the moment,

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Speaker 4: like the world's quite politically unstable, like we're in a

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Speaker 4: cost of living crisis.

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Speaker 1: No matter what side of the arl.

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Speaker 4: You see on any of these issues, when you speak

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Speaker 4: to anyone, whether they're super rich, superport, everyone will tell

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Speaker 4: you the cost of eggs is too much, right, Like

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Speaker 4: everyone's a bit shocked. It's like ten to twelve dollars.

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Speaker 4: And so I just I really do believe prescribes that

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Speaker 4: belief that, like there's a recession, fear, people looking for joy,

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Speaker 4: looking for affordable joy. And so I think it's the

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Speaker 4: two factor of like it's an affordable item, and then

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Speaker 4: I think we're all just enjoying the bit of silly.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that's it into our lives.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And hey, what's wrong with that?

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Speaker 1: What's wrong with that?

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Speaker 2: My final question is do you think this is gonna

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Speaker 2: live on? Or do you think we're gonna have another

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Speaker 2: ltle boo boo?

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Speaker 1: It's gonna die? Like I mean, I don't want to mean.

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Speaker 1: I could be wrong, but yeah, I think it's going

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Speaker 1: to die.

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Speaker 4: I think when things peak like this, they tend to

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Speaker 4: die a pre natural death quickly to fall from. Yeah,

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Speaker 4: so I can't imagine it's going to sustain, but I

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Speaker 4: could be totally wrong. I'm just really enjoying watching it,

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Speaker 4: and I kind of be interested to see, like when

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Speaker 4: it does die.

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Speaker 1: Like where do all the labooboos go?

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Speaker 3: Stick around?

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Speaker 2: Because after the break, I'm going to talk to a

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Speaker 2: consumer psychologist about why our brains love these furry key chains.

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Speaker 3: We'll be right back. Welcome back. I'm joined by a

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Speaker 3: consumer psychologist and founder of Think About, Adam Ferrier. Adam,

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Speaker 3: thank you so much for joining me.

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Speaker 2: Now, from a science perspective regarding lavooboos, what the heck

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Speaker 2: is going on here?

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Speaker 5: Well that's quite a phrase, isn't it. From a science perspective,

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Speaker 5: what's going on with labooboos? We can post rationalize this

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Speaker 5: any way, you like. They've become incredibly popular incredibly pretty quickly.

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Speaker 5: They've been around for quite a while, but their growth

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Speaker 5: has gone exponential recently. They seem to be getting a

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Speaker 5: lot of things right, and you can deconstruct those things

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Speaker 5: quite effectively. I think the most interesting thing they've done

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Speaker 5: is the blind boxing, which basically means you don't quite

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Speaker 5: know what labooboo you're going to get when you open

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Speaker 5: the pack. And that's a technique that relies on something

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Speaker 5: called variable positive reinforcement, which is basically the same way

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Speaker 5: poke machines work, which is you don't know when you're

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Speaker 5: going to get a jackpot, and you don't know how

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Speaker 5: big that jackpot's going to be. It's the strongest conditioner

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Speaker 5: of human behavior. But it's not a new it's not

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Speaker 5: a new thing. So you know, poke machines have views

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Speaker 5: of page just footy cards in Australia. I don't know

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Speaker 5: if you've ever collected footy cards, but you buy a

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Speaker 5: pack of cars, you don't know which ones you're going

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Speaker 5: to get, and you keep on buying them for the

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Speaker 5: hope you're getting a good one. It's not used that often,

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Speaker 5: but it's an incredibly effective conditioner of human behavior when

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Speaker 5: it is used.

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Speaker 3: I'm interested in why it seems to be led so

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Speaker 3: much by adults. What do you kind of pin that to?

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Speaker 3: Is nostalgia a big play in this?

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Speaker 5: You've seen premiumization and adultification, if that's a word of

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Speaker 5: toys for a while. So Lego, for example, has gone

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Speaker 5: massively into the adult world, and I think it's probably

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Speaker 5: because I actually think it's probably because that's where there's

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Speaker 5: more money. There's also quite a I think there's also

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Speaker 5: with Labuoba dolls and quite a few other trends. There's

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Speaker 5: a strong Southeast Asian element, and so they often exist

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Speaker 5: around in certain subcultures and then get picked up by

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Speaker 5: mainstream culture. There is also another kind of macro trend

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Speaker 5: in toys, which is this kind of cute ugly thing.

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Speaker 5: So they're cute, but because they're ugly, they kind of

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Speaker 5: feel a little bit subversive. And so maybe it's the

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Speaker 5: fact that they're not luck just a purely cute toy

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Speaker 5: which makes it feel like it's susceptible for me because

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Speaker 5: it's slightly subversive of a toy category, and therefore I'm

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Speaker 5: kind of having it in a somewhat ironic sense. I'm

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Speaker 5: drawn to these things, whereas if I'll purely cute, like hello, kitty, you,

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Speaker 5: you couldn't buy into that. So it's probably a sub

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Speaker 5: back to of acute ugly thing.

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Speaker 2: So my last big question is do you see any

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Speaker 2: other trends on the horizon or is it long lived?

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Speaker 1: La boo boo?

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Speaker 3: From what you've noticed.

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Speaker 5: It's short lived, la booboo. The faster, the faster the trend,

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Speaker 5: the faster the death. So you think about some of

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Speaker 5: our prime up down straight away. But I think I

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Speaker 5: think the bearable positive reinforcement is something that I think,

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Speaker 5: and the blind boxing is something that I think is

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Speaker 5: happening more and more. And I think as we get

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Speaker 5: better at distribution and better at more sophisticated in terms

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Speaker 5: of understanding how humans work and what trigger dopamine hits

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Speaker 5: and what doesn't, I think you'll see that happen more

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Speaker 5: and more. I also think vending machines and that whole

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Speaker 5: kind of semi automated gamified distribution mechanic is going to

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Speaker 5: become more and more popular as well. So I think

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Speaker 5: there's I think they've latched onto a few trends that

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Speaker 5: aren't going away anytime soon. But I don't think we're

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Speaker 5: going to be talking about labooby dolls in Adam a sign.

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Speaker 3: Oh you heard it here first.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining me, Adam, and if

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Speaker 2: you want to read more of Mary's interview with the

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Speaker 2: Laboo Boo Dealer, head to news dot com dot Au.

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Speaker 3: Otherwise, thanks for listening. We'll be back tomorrow.

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Speaker 4: Follow us, subscribe to from the newsroom wherever you get

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Speaker 4: your podcasts.