Hello Kitty, born in 1974, was created by the Sanrio company in Tokyo. Since then, this adorable character has been featured on thousands of different products, from t-shirts to lunchboxes and much, much more.

Celebrities have been spotted everywhere with Hello Kitty gear, whether young up-and-comers like Miley Cyrus and Raven Symoné to an older generation of celebrities like Cameron Diaz and Mariah Carey.

Hello Kitty has been featured in several animated series since the mid 80s, featured on both Japanese and American television. This year Sanrio will release Hello Kitty’s first 3D DVD, The Adventures of Hello Kitty & Friends. The company is also beta testing a Hello Kitty online role playing game, in which users will be able to create a character, socialize with other users, and fight monsters.

The Hello Kitty character also represents one of the most successful licensing and branding campaigns in toy history. Hello Kitty has her own Fender guitar, laptop computers, and even antivirus and firewall software, in addition to the classic purses and school supplies. Japan is even using Hello Kitty to promote itself to Chinese tourists.

Hello Kitty is enormously popular in China and Hong Kong, and tourists from these countries represent a significant percentage of Japan’s tourism business. Hello Kitty is one of the most popular characters ever created, and it is depicted on over 50,000 products across the world and is even the star of its own musical that recently opened in Beijing.

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