Fidget toys are being rebranded as “ASMR toys.” 

Fidget toys are being rebranded as “ASMR toys.” ASMR slowly became a “cultural phenomenon” over the last decade, leading to thousands of ASMR creators and millions of videos on YouTube. For years, brands have been tapping into the ASMR market via marketing—and now the toy industry is joining the trend. Late last year, a line of “multicolored, brightly packaged” Sensory FX toys that promised to be “oddly satisfying” and give customers’ tingles arrived on Walmart’s shelves. ASMR enthusiasts report that the toys don’t actually trigger ASMR, and instead the line is an “[attempt] to rebrand fidget toys as ASMR toys, perhaps in order to capitalize on a growing trend and the buying power of [M]illennial money.” According to one expert, manufacturers might’ve not considered that the “ASMR experience is contingent on demonstrative elements” and is usually stimulated “in the presence of a kind or caring person who may be speaking gently, moving gently, or making gentle sounds with something they are holding or demonstrating.” (Mashable)