History

The formula for Play-Doh was created in 1912 in Cincinnati by Joseph McVicker. This soft, dough-like compound was originally called Kutol Products and became very popular for taking soot off of wallpaper. As people stopped heating their houses with coal and fire and turned to electricity, the issue of soot collecting on walls was no longer a problem. The company started to die out as it didn't really have a use anymore (Smithsonian Magazine, 2019).

What changed the game and led to what Play-Doh is today was a discovery by Joseph's sister-in-law, Kay Zufall. She was a teacher and gave it to her children, who loved to make models and found this material to be perfect for this purpose. This discovery sparked the idea that children could be a new consumer population for this product, and Kutol Products could be rebranded as a modeling clay for children (Smithsonian Magazine, 2019).

This creates a big change for this old wallpaper cleaning company, as Joseph creates the Rainbow Crafts Company and starts marketing it to kids. Play-Doh started to become available in 1956 in only the color white, like the original product, but this quickly expanded to red, yellow, and blue in 1957. It originally came in cardboard cans with a little elf on the front known as Play-Doh-Pete ("The 50 year history of Play-Doh," n.d.).

Sales for Play-Doh started out in the department store of Woodward & Lothrop, which was just located in Washington, DC. Quickly, other stores, such as Macy's and Marshall Fields, started to become interested and offered it in their stores (Smithsonian Magazine, 2019).

Play-Doh toys quickly followed in 1960, with the creation of the Fun Factory, a press that could let you make ropes, shapes, hair, ice cream, and more ("The 50 year history of Play-Doh," n.d.). There were slight changes to Play-Doh in the following years. One being the switch to the plastic container that we know today. Along with being sold to the company Hasbro as a part of their Playskool division in 1991 ("The 50 year history of Play-Doh," n.d.).

Play-Doh since the 2000s

Over two billion Play-Doh cans were sold in the years between 1995-2005. By the time it was 2005, Play-Doh was being sold in 75 countries. That year there were around 95 million cans being sold a year (Walsh, 2005).
Play-Doh was awarded on the "Century of Toys List" being the top 100 most memorable and creative toys in 2003 (Walsh, 2005).
Many more colors have been added to Play-Doh. In 2000 the company Hasbro had the public vote for new colors and created the colors blue lagoon, rose red, purple paradise, and garden green ("The 50 year history of Play-Doh," n.d.).
For their 50th anniversary, they released a 50-pack of Play-Doh showing how vast the color selection is ("The 50 year history of Play-Doh," n.d.).
There is also a competitive Play-Doh sculpting competition tv series called Play-Doh Squished hosted by Sarah Hyland on Amazon Freevee which started in 2021. The contestants are kids and make elaborate sculptures with this Play-Doh (Hasbro, 2022).

Page updated

Report abuse