History of The Board Game Monopoly - Monopoly As A Brand

Monopoly As A Brand

Parker Brothers created a few accessories and licensed a few products shortly after it began publishing the game in 1935. These included a money pad and the first stock exchange add-on in 1936, a birthday card, and a song by Charles Tobias (lyrics) and John Jacob Loeb (music). At the conclusion of the Anti-Monopoly case, Kenner Parker Toys began to seek trademarks on the design elements of Monopoly. It was at this time that the game's main logo was redesigned to feature "Rich Uncle Pennybags" (now "Mr. Monopoly") reaching out from the second "O" in the word Monopoly. All items stamped with the red MONOPOLY logo also feature the word "Brand" in small print. In the mid-1980s, after the success of the first "collector's tin anniversary edition" (for the 50th anniversary), an edition of the game was produced by the Franklin Mint, the first edition to be published outside Parker Brothers. At about the same time, McDonald's started its first Monopoly game promotions, considered the company's most successful, which continue to the present. The twentieth such promotion was sponsored in 2012.

In recent years, the Monopoly brand has been licensed onto slot machines (which won an award in 1999), instant-win lottery tickets, and lines of 1:64 scale model cars produced by Johnny Lightning, which also included collectible game tokens. The brand has also been licensed onto clothing and accessories, including a line of bathroom accessories. The licenses to USAopoly and Winning Moves Games to produce new editions of the board game were also awarded in the mid-1990s. While USAopoly produces many licensed spin-offs in North America, Winning Moves Games holds the licenses to produce different editions, including "city" editions, in the United Kingdom, France and Germany.