MAKING SNAKES LOOK CUTESIE

I saw these two cute snake soft toys on sale at a shop this evening.  There is a male and a female.  I read in the newspaper that manufacturers come up with cuter versions of the snake for the Chinese New Year to make it more appealing and less frightening.
Here is an article from the Star newspaper about this.

Candy-coloured cartoon reptile CNY decorations a hit with customers
By YEE XIANG YUN
xiangyun@thestar.com.my

Bestsellers: Low Kai Pei, 20, holding up the wall stickers printed with colourful images of cartoon snakes.

JOHOR BARU: The words “cute and adorable” are almost never associated with snakes.

This year, however, vendors are selling adorable candy-coloured cartoon snake Chinese New Year decorations that are proving to be a hit with customers.

Ideal Collection supervisor Johnson Wong said that ang pow packets and wall stickers adorned with pastel-coloured snakes with big round eyes are popular with customers in conjunction with the Year of the Snake.

“The snake images are in yellow, pink and green. The images also have gold medallion prints for good luck and some are adorned with huge bows and crowns to make them more appealing and friendly-looking,” he said at Sutera Mall here yesterday.

He added that the snakes on the decorations have wide smiles.

“One would imagine snakes as being slimy and devious animals but on the decorations, it is the opposite,” he said, adding that the items were brought in from China.

Wong said that there were less products associated with snakes this year as compared to the rabbit or the dragon year because many do not like the idea of using reptiles as a decorative piece.

He also mentioned that sales for the decorative items picked up a week ago.

“Our snake ang pow packets priced at RM1 for a pack of six were sold out two weeks after Christmas and about 60% of our wall decorations were sold out at all our 10 branches throughout Johor Baru.

“Customers like to survey and compare prices and get their hands on the products before the good ones are gone,” he said.

He also added that their best-seller, a 91cm snake wall sticker priced at RM12.90 per pair, sold like hot cakes due to its colourful appeal.

He also said that their products were sold at about 30% cheaper than last year due to an increase in competition.

Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2013/1/22/nation/12581500&sec=nation