UH Manoa expert on why Hello Kitty has been a pop-culture powerhouse for 50 years

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – On Nov. 1, Hello Kitty just celebrated a very special birthday — she just turned the big 5-0.
Created in Sanrio in 1974, Hello Kitty has gone from a Japanese character into a beloved global icon embraced by people of all ages worldwide.
Sanrio accomplished no easy feat, maintaining the brand as a pop culture powerhouse for over 50 years. From being featured on kids’ backpacks to celebrities’ jewelry, makeup palettes, and giant balloons at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Hello Kitty is everywhere and shows no signs of stopping.
But why? What gives this brand such a lasting appeal? What special sauce allows the characters to remain timeless and not be a flash in the pan like many of their competitors?
Christine Yano, Professor Emerita of anthropology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is the leading expert on Hello Kitty’s cultural impact. She wrote a book about this, Pink Globalization: Hello Kitty’s Trek Across the Pacific.
Yano realized Hello Kitty’s deep cultural resonance while teaching a Japanese popular culture course in 1997. Yano says her lasting appeal is attributed to her design, which evokes a sense of sweetness, nostalgia, and universality.
“You think about 50 years of a figure, a character, a toy, like Hello Kitty. And so, how is that possible? Because things change, generations change. So what is it that can make her still appealing?” Yano said.
“I can only guess that when talking with many different people from all walks of life, they make her (Hello Kitty) their own, and that’s part of the appeal of the blankness. Undeniably cute, but somehow flexible in its spareness of the design.”
In 2014, it was revealed that Hello Kitty isn’t technically a cat but rather a “little girl” or “a friend,” per Sanrio’s guidance. This surprising fact, shared by Yano during an exhibition, went completely viral, making headlines worldwide, and contributes to her unique mystique.
While canonically, Hello Kitty is British and was raised in the suburbs of London, we’re so lucky that the Sanrio brand understands the importance of the Hello Kitty brand in the Islands. Sanrio created an entire line of Hawaii Hello Kitty plushies and merchandise that are a hit for tourists as they are hard to find anywhere but on the islands.
Is Hello Kitty helping boost the Hawaii economy, too? What can’t she do?
“Lots of credit to Sanrio for having, of course, a recognizable brand item, branded item, like Hello Kitty, but always doing something with creativity, with a little sometimes an edginess that you would say, ‘Really, they’re doing that?”
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