Fading Craze or Crazy Fad?

I was interviewed the other day for a Wall Street Journal story on the current Silly Bandz craze. The reporter and I discussed the difference between a “craze” and a “fad.” My online dictionary defines a craze as, “an enthusiasm for a particular activity or object that typically appears suddenly and achieves widespread but short-lived popularity.” The same dictionary defines a fad as, “an intense and widely shared enthusiasm for something, esp. one that is short-lived and without basis in the object's qualities.” Although the two definitions are somewhat interchangeable, the word fad brings baggage with it.

There’s more than a hint of negativity to a fad. Got swept up in a craze? There’s no way anyone could resist. Got swept up in a fad? “There’s a sucker born every minute,” as the showman PT Barnum used to say. BCP Imports, the makers of Silly Bandz have two main concerns. Keeping their current craze from becoming a fad and not over producing should the latter label stick and the spigot of Silly Bandz suddenly turn off and stay off.

A fad eventually disappears, while a craze drops dramatically in popularity but stays at a level of success that is sustainable over time. By this distinction, anything that sells like mad can be defined as a craze when you’re in the middle of it. It’s only after the dust settles that history is determined.

Pet Rock was a fad.
Cabbage Patch Kids was a craze.
Mood Rings: Fad
Rubik’s Cube: Craze
Pogs: Fad
Beanie Babies: Craze

Toy Nation does itself a disservice when it represents a craze as a fad. In the great craze/fad debate, no toy gets dragged through the mud more than the Hula Hoop. WHAM-O's hit toy from 1958 was one of the biggest selling toys in history, but because it was such a short-lived craze, it has been falsely categorized as the "biggest fad of all time." It even has its own idiom, “It went the way of the Hula Hoop,” as if to say that something disappeared. Will Newspapers go the way of the Hula Hoop? a recent headline asked. When I interviewed Rich Knerr, one of the founding members of WHAM-O for my WHAM-O Super Book, he told me that when WHAM-O was sold in 1982, they were selling a million and a half Hula Hoops a year. In other words, the craze of 1958 was still pretty darn big nearly 25 years later. A craze had become a classic. The Hula Hoop was no mere fad.

So as we stand in the middle of a literal storm of flying rubber, we can only watch and wait for toy history to be made. For BCP Imports it's the million (billion?) dollar question: Will Silly Bandz simply come back down to earth or fall off the face of it?

UPDATE: AOL Finance called to discuss Silly Bandz. Read the article HERE.

Memories of Playing with WHAM-O Toys

Gotta share an email I received this morning:

Tim - just a short note to let you know how much I appreciate your efforts. I just finished the ‘super book’ about Wham-o’s history. Great piece. I just ordered another of your works relating to classic toys of our past. None of this hit home for me until I was following my father’s wishes as executor of his estate recently. I just turned 60 years old and when I went through my father’s things, I discovered he had squirreled away almost all of my childhood things – mostly toys and models. I sit here right now playing with my original air blaster – I can’t believe it still works perfectly. Trac Ball is still in good shape, as are some very well used Frisbees (man, could I throw that thing!!) I count 23 super balls, every one of them still has ‘zip’ when bounced. Apparently when I moved out of my parent’s home in 1971, he saved everything I ever acquired. Pretty neat when you think about it. Sitting here waxing nostalgic, I really feel good about the time I grew up in and the terrific toys that were available to us. Here’s to ‘Spud’ Melin & Rich Knerr – they indeed left a legacy to us all. Thanks again for the trip down memory lane.

Seeeya –
John
Secane, Pennsylvania

Thanks, John. May your WHAM-O Super Balls always put a bounce in your step. What better gift could a parent give a kid than a happy childhood? Saving all your favorite toys in a box in the attic doesn't hurt either!

What's your favorite WHAM-O Toy memory?

Moving Pictures

It's official. I have been bitten by the film making bug. More specifically, it's the editing process that has me. It is without a doubt, a form of play. There are beats and rhythms to cutting together any film. There's a structure to it, like playing with a multi-colored pile of Lego bricks. It's layering, scene upon scene, building something that's connected. It's problem-solving. It's building a puzzle and solving one at the same time. Because I know how long it took us to edit our little film, I am especially in awe of this film called Gardyn by Pogo. This film is like a playful puzzle of a Lego castle. It's 3:25 of smile.