NFT-Oh No: Sesame Street Enters NFT Biz

by James · March 14, 2023

Well here we go again.

On Monday, March 13, Variety shared the exclusive story about Sesame Street entering the NFT game.

Every time a Henson-adjacent property has entered the NFT scene, we here at ToughPigs have had a negative reaction, and the editors have called me in to complain. In 2021, I said Labyrinth NFTs were the worst Henson Company had ever done. Just last month I showed you how Fraggle Rock NFTs just repackaged old screenshots for no gain.

And now they’ve come for Cookie Monster and I’m just tired.

Here we go again with all the same lingo we are used to. Jennifer Ahearn, Sesame Workshop’s VP of Global Strategic Partnerships, says, “Partnering with VeVe for [Sesame Street’s] first collection of digital collectibles is a great way to celebrate [the series’] lasting legacy and give our longtime fans a new way to show their love for Sesame Street and its characters.”

Great. A new way to show off my love for Sesame Street and its characters…spending $60 to own one of 5,555 “collectible” 3D images of Cookie Monster.

That’s it? Is that what we’re talking about here? We spend 60 bucks on it???

Yes, we are back here again. Granted, at least this is new artwork, which is more than I can say about those Fraggle NFTs from February. However, it’s not exactly good artwork. It’s a fairly low-detailed 3D rendering that looks like the old Sesame toys, except again, it’s not real. It doesn’t have anywhere near the kind of artistic appeal of the puppet itself, or of old Sesame books, or the kind of fan art you’d see the talented artists on Muppets Twitter (and on this website!) create every day.

What can we do with our very own Cookie Monster NFT? Mostly just watch it on the VeVe app and remember we own it. According to this Variety article, Cookie can be placed in our “digital collections in virtual showrooms.” We can also look at other virtual showrooms and comment on them.

Once again, I want to remind you that the Muppet Wiki exists, and it’s free, and there are thousands of pictures of Cookie Monster on it alone. Like, here’s a picture of Ernie holding a picture of Cookie Monster. Free! Save $60 and use it to buy a Nintendo Switch game or something.

Look, I’m treading a lot of the same ground I did a month ago with the Fraggle stuff. Like I said, I’m tired. Ultimately, these NFTs are not for us superfans, who would much rather own a set of Sesame Street Treasury or Follow That Bird on DVD. Not everything has to be for us, of course. Many will argue that NFTs are fine, and obviously everyone is entitled to their opinions. This is mine: this is bad, and actively damaging to the Sesame brand.

There is nothing about NFTs. There is no purpose. Sesame, a brand that for years thrived on the idea of targeted merchandise, has decided on this. What do I mean by “purpose goods?” Well, originally Sesame Street was hesitant to sell anything that wasn’t educational. For years, their products had information on them reminding parents how buying these things could help them continue the lessons their children learned on the TV show. Here is a picture of two pieces from my personal collection, dating back to the earliest days of Sesame Street. You can see that Sesame even took the time to remind parents how a book can be used to help their children move on.

I know those days are gone, and have been for a while now. There’s nothing educational about the Cookie Monster pajama pants we all had (or have, honestly) or the really big Snuffleupagus Funko Pop. But as a whole, Sesame is a brand known for simple pleasures, connections, positivity and quality.

This is none of those things. What Sesame sells, with the forced scarcity and purposelessness of its CG images, is gambling. NFTs, like any bubble, are about financial speculation. NFT collectibles have to look legit, but there’s no substance here. It’s a get-rich-quick scheme, designed to use our love of Cookie Monster to hide how it’s all about buying something low and reselling it later. That’s how all these NFTs work. They should not be enjoyed. They must be stored and used.

Like all bubbles, it will burst. It’s already faltering. We’re seeing interest wane in the Bored Ape Yacht Club, not to mention there’s that celebrity class action lawsuit artificially inflating the prices of the ugly apes. Meta announced just this week that they are ending the NFT game. Big tech companies now can’t shut up about AI, leaving NFTs in the dust.

Sesame, and the VeVe Company as a whole, are not providing us with a quality product. They are rushing to cash in on this now while they still can. You will be left with the bag when the managers in VeVe have moved on to something bigger and better. And unlike Beanie Babies, the bag isn’t even cute. It’s just a $60 photo of Cookie Monster you need an app to look at. What happens if no one wants to trade Cookie Monsters? What happens if the VeVe app stops being supported? Where will your Cookie Monster showroom be then?

Chew on it.

As I have said in my other articles, I am skeptical about the environmental impact of any type of Etherium. I know VeVe talks a lot about carbon offsets and how they use 99.9% less energy than other popular NFT services. I know Funko Pops recently reminded us how wasteful plastic toys can be in the wrong circumstances. I would like to see more specific data; I know I don’t know enough to challenge them on this right now.

I know Sesame needs help financially. It’s been a tough couple of years for the entertainment industry, with layoffs all over the place. They still operate out of New York City, and lord knows things are incredibly expensive out there. I know that capitalism forces us all to make sacrifices to keep that line moving upward. I want to help Sesame Workshop and all the brilliant and passionate creatives who work there.

At the same time, I prefer to buy things that are quality. Things that are joyful and positive. This is just sad. I don’t want to think of financial speculation, greed and gambling when I think of Sesame Street. I don’t want to think about complicated phrases like “layer 2 scaling protocol”, “instant trade confirmation” and “high scalability.”

I want to think of better things than this.