INDEX: Play-Doh Merchandising Displays

IINDEX:
Play-Doh Merchandising Displays

Play-Doh Merchandising Displays

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This Play-Doh Merchandising Displays index page aggregates links
to all posts and photos of retail merchandising, display, and outfitting
as well as deep Background courtesy of Wikipedia.

BACKSTORY: Play-Doh is a modeling compound for young children to make arts and crafts projects. The product was first manufactured in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, as a wallpaper cleaner in the 1930s.^[1] Play-Doh was then reworked and marketed to Cincinnati schools in the mid-1950s. Play-Doh was demonstrated at an educational convention in 1956 and prominent department stores opened retail accounts.^[2]

Advertisements promoting Play-Doh on influential children’s television shows in 1957 furthered the product’s sales.^[1] Since its launch on the toy market in the mid-1950s, Play-Doh has generated a considerable amount of ancillary merchandise such as the Fun Factory.^[3]

The non-toxic, non-staining, reusable modeling compound that came to be known as “Play-Doh” was a pliable, putty-like substance concocted by Noah McVicker of Cincinnati-based soap manufacturer Kutol Products. It was devised at the request of Kroger Grocery, which wanted a product that could clean coal residue from wallpaper.^[4]

Following World War II, with the transition from coal-based home heating to natural gas and the resulting decrease in internal soot, and the introduction of washable vinyl-based wallpaper, the market for wallpaper cleaning putty decreased substantially. McVicker’s nephew, Joe McVicker, joined Kutol with the remit to save the company from bankruptcy. Joe McVicker was the brother-in-law of nursery school teacher Kay Zufall, who had seen a newspaper article about making art projects with the wallpaper cleaning putty.^[5] Her students enjoyed it, and she persuaded Noah McVicker (who also sold the putty) and Joe McVicker to manufacture it as a child’s toy.^[5] Zufall and her husband came up with the name Play-Doh; Joe McVicker and his uncle Noah had wanted to call it “Rainbow Modeling Compound”.^[5] (SOURCE: Wikipedia)

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