Fad, Silly Bandz

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The novelty item that I chose is the “Silly Bandz.” This fad started about a year or so ago between kids ages three thru eighteen. I would have to agree with Meyersohn and Katz (1957) concerning the latent period when they concluded that fads are not born but are rediscovered. (Miller 2000) In the late 80’s and early 90’s, I would find as many rubber bands that I could to put on my arm. I used them as sling shots among other things but the primary reason was as a fashion statement. For some reason we thought it was cool. I don’t even remember how it stated; one friend did it, then another and another and soon after this fad snowballed down to me. Soon after it was about how many you had and how many different colors. The same thing has transpired today in the Silly Bandz. The break out period was late 2009 and early 2010. We have yet to see the declining period because this fad is something that has recently taken off but I assume just like other fads decline, this will also in about two or three years. Silly Bandz were actually supposed to be something to help the environment back in 2002 to help reduce the waste of rubber bands in offices. (Wallace 2011) Creator and Japanese designer Robert Croak simply thought about altering the rubber band but it turned into a fashion explosion. (Wallace 2011) The marketing strategy is genius when you think about who they are marketing to; little kids. They have Kardashian Glam Silly Bandz, Justin Bieber Silly Bandz and among others I think the most famous is Sponge Bob Square Pants Silly Bandz. (Wallace 2011) They are also affordable; one bag of 24 cost about $5.00 and a bag of 12 could cost around $2.50; depending if you’re in a tourist spot or not. (Wallace 2011) My son wants a bag every time we walk into a store. These rubber bands are very unique in the social networking arena because kids identify

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