In October 2003, the New York Times reported on heated opposition to the new game "Ghettopoly," which was being sold at Urban Outfitters stores throughout the region. Developed by David Chang, a 28-year-old who came to the U.S. from Taiwan at age eight, Ghettopoly reinterprets Monopoly for the inner city, with "playas" seeking to acquire enough crack houses so they can create a "project" on their property. In place of Boardwalk and Park Place are properties such as Ray Ray's Chicken and Ribs and Smitty's XXX Peep Show. Though intended as humorous rather than degrading, the game provoked outrage in many circles. Kweisi Mfume, President of the NAACP, condemned the game as "a racist and bigoted product attempting to hide behind the cloak of entertainment." Protestors, including Yale students and members of the local NAACP, gathered in front of Urban Outfitters stores, where games were flying off the shelves. Under pressure, the national chain finally pulled the game from its stores.

Located at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens, the site of the 1939 exhibition, New York's 1964 World's Fair was the largest of the city's three international exhibitions and attracted over fifty-one million visitors. The fair was organized by a team headed by former city planner Robert Moses and was beset by controversies that culminated in a veritable boycott by the Bureau of International Expositions. Although tensions with the BIE resulted in diminished international participation, the fair showcased American industry and influence with the theme, "Peace Through Understanding," embodied by the twelve-story steel Unisphere globe. The World's Fair 1964-1965 Corporation was a major supplier of inexpensive household, women's, and children's souvenirs.

Designed by Maybelle Mercer, these paper dolls were manufactured by the Saalfield Publishing Co. of Akron. Saalfield began making children's books in 1900 and introduced paper dolls in 1918. The company flourished as the popularity of paper dolls soared in the 1940s and '50s.

The marriage of spiritual values and worldly achievement first appeared in Milton Bradley's inaugural game, The Checkered Game of Life. As in the Mansion of Happiness, the game taught lessons of success achieved through virtuous living. However, Bradley's game also secularized the notion of virtuous living by rewarding material accomplishments. To celebrate the centennial of the game in 1960, Milton Bradley issued The Game of Life, which traced the steps from high school graduation to retire..