What began as an illustration for a greeting card, Strawberry Shortcake celebrates a huge milestone this Valentine’s Day. The fruity-named gal, originally drawn by Barbi Sargent, is still entertaining children 50 years on.
A freelance artist at American Greetings, Sargent created the iconic character, but it wasn’t until a few years later that she would receive the moniker of Strawberry Shortcake. The cards were incredibly popular and Sargent was tasked with creating a further four card designs in 1977.
Muriel Fahrion took over creating concept art, and was responsible for 32 characters as part of American Greetings’ Those Characters From Cleveland toy and licencing design division.
Additional characters were designed and intended to be part of the family, all of which had equally delicious names based on other fruits and desserts. Each character owned a pet with sweet sounding name – Strawberry Shortcake had a cat called Custard. If you owned any of the dolls in the Strawberry Shortcake family you’ll remember that they had a scent that corresponded to their name.
Several more names are associated with designs and final artworks for Strawberry Shortcake and her family. I suggest reading through the Wikipedia page where many (but not all) are credited for their contributions.
Strawberry Shortcake became a tangible item when American Greetings released a Strawberry Shortcake rag doll in 1979. Between 1980 and 1985, a yearly Strawberry Shortcake television special was aired but ended as interest in the franchise waned and doll production ceased; a makeover in 1991 did little to revitalise the brand.
A decade later, Strawberry Shortcake was revived once more, again with a new look. This spawned a television series and soundtracks, along with Nintendo games (20 years after the first and only Strawberry Shortcake game on the Atari 2600) and even educational CD-ROMs. A line of Strawberry Shortcake figurines and a feature film were released in 2006.
2009 saw another relaunch, with a movie and 4 seasons (65 episodes) of a television series. Since then, the manufacturing rights have been purchased and resold by several companies.
Sometimes I can’t believe the staying power of some creations. Just think, in 20 years time, the people who are currently watching the new Strawberry Shortcake show on Netflix could be getting themselves a nostalgic tattoo to remind themselves of their childhood. It’s a very real possibility that in 70 years time Strawberry Shortcake will still exist in some form or another, whether that be merchandise, media, or tattoos.
At the time of the original publication of this tattoo list (on my previous website), there was a bit of a scare going on in Australia, with needles being discovered in strawberries. The only time strawberries and needles should meet is when you’re getting a strawberry or a Strawberry Shortcake tattoo.
With Strawberry Shortcake tattoos in such small numbers, it was a nice surprise to discover tattoos featuring some of the other characters from Strawberryland – you’ll have to scroll through to discover just who they are!
One thing’s for sure, there’s no forgetting Strawberry Shortcake and her family if you get yourself a tattoo.
The Tattooed Archivist 