THERE'S NO TROUBLE FINDING NEMO TOYS.

Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard

Four-year-old Dimitri Cifuentes hopped across the Cinemark theater lobby singing, "Ne-mo, Ne-mo, Ne-mo."

He hadn't yet seen the new Disney/Pixar movie "Finding Nemo," now playing on a half-dozen screens in Eugene-Springfield. But he was hyped on weeks of television commercials promoting the show.

Young children and their parents are likely to find themselves in a Nemo-saturated world this summer as a global network of cross-marketing agreements deliver the movie's underseas characters everywhere they're likely to find themselves.

Get ready for Nemo plush dolls, Nemo spin-pops, Nemo video games, Nemo pajamas, Nemo beach towel and ball sets, Nemo bath accessories, Nemo backpacks, Nemo sandals, Nemo PlayStation games, Nemo non-skid tub appliques - and a set of Nemo Happy Meal toys (be sure to collect all eight).

The Nemo characters - Marlin and Dory, Bruce and Crusher - follow on the heals of Shrek and Donkey, Buzz and Woody and other animated "stars." With each turn of the season comes the next computer-generated, 3-D character and the attendant legions of must-have spin-off products.

"There are reports of parental fatigue about being inundated with the latest character everywhere they turn," said Marian Friestad, associate marketing professor at the University of Oregon.

"They took the kids to the movie," she said. "When they stopped for a burger afterward they got a toy. When they went shopping for summer play clothes, the clothes have the figure on it. The lunch box for next fall will have the character. It does get tiresome for parents."

But for marketers, the cross-pollination between movies, fast food restaurants and toy manufacturers means tapping into a young and growing market. And we do mean young: Research shows that even babies are aware of brands, Friestad said.

To many marketers, the link is golden. And their efforts to use characters to sell products to children has soared over the past two decades.

It used to be that characters such as Winnie the Pooh were simply created to tell a story in a book or cartoon or animated movie. Then, in the 1980s, marketers discovered they could employ such characters as He-Man Master of the Universe, Ninja Turtles and the Smurfs to sell toys.

Now the process of story-telling and sales is so sophisticated as to be practically seamless, Friestad said. "They have the whole combined marketing campaign designed from the start," she said.

The Nemo characters are bright and whimsical, with features human enough to tug at the heartstrings. And they're easy to replace six or 12 months later when the next computer-generated animation blockbuster arrives on the scene, introducing a new cast of characters and their own set of product spin-offs.

It's a form of planned obsolescence that's changing the way families view the characters of childhood, Friestad said.

"If Winnie the Pooh were created today, would it still be alive in this moment or would it be replaced by something else?" she said. "It may be something we're losing in this world of constant new creation of new characters."

The trend is downright sinister to Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a Portland-based nonprofit organization that opposes marketing to children in general.

"Kids are bombarded with so many advertising messages, and the aggregated message is to buy, buy, buy," he said.

Another problem is where to put yesterday's castoff characters. Many end up at thrift stores such as St. Vincent de Paul, which is able to sell some logo-embellished books and clothes but has a hard time getting rid of the toys, especially fast-food promotional items, according to Executive Director Terry McDonald.

The thrift store is dedicated to recycling, but McDonald can't figure out how to proceed with the toys. "It would be nice if the guys who manufactured these would say these are X, Y, Z plastics," he said. "At least then we'd have a way to get rid of them."

Instead, in Lane County, the ignominious end for Buzz and Woody and Shrek and Donkey is often the Short Mountain Landfill. Before long, some friends named Nemo and Marlin and Dory will be there, too.

Next year, Dreamworks SKG will weigh in with the animated films "Shrek 2" and "Sharkslayer." Last week the studio signed with Hasbro to begin production of the spin-off puzzles, games and toys.

CAPTION(S):

Dimitri Cifuentes hops across a theater lobby in front of a display for the "Finding Nemo" movie as he makes his way to see the new animated film. "Kids are bombarded with so many advertising messages.' - GARY RUSKIN, COMMERCIAL ALERT