Today February 18th is Play Doh Day

Play Doh was created in 1956 by Joe McVicker from modeling clay out of wallpaper paste for his sister’s pre-school students. Rainbow Crafts in Cincinnati, Ohio distributed the off white modeling compound known as Play-Doh to department stores and schools.

Kenner later acquired Play Doh, made it into a rainbow of colors. In 1991 Hasbro toys acquired the rights.

Play Doh comes in a variety of products and is sold worldwide!

Have you heard of Play Doh Marketing? According to Doug Hall, Author of “How to Jump-start Your Brain” getting the creative juices flowing can be as simple as opening a can of Play Doh and what else? Playing with it!

Remember when you were a kid and played with this crazy clay and came up with all sorts of shapes. If you were like me you probably even invented a few new “animals” like the corse (a combination cat and horse) or the allimonkey (an alligator with long arms that swings from trees and eats people AND bananas). My brother and I would spend hours with our Play Doh coming up with goofy shapes!

Fast forward today. If you had a can of Play Doh in front of you right now, what would you create? And what would it remind you of? If you are having trouble coming up with “fresh ideas” in business, take a drive over to Toys R Us or Target or let your fingers do the walking online and buy some Play Doh! Heck, have a Play Doh party at work and see what happens!

For more on Play Doh products, go to http://www.hasbro.com/playdoh/default.cfm?page=product