Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Operation Play-Doh a Great Success!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween.

I did my own experiment this Halloween.

I had read an article in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior that suggested kids would be just as happy choosing toys as they would candy on Halloween.

My wife and I put that to the test last night.

We offered kids the choice between sugar-free gum and Play-Doh. The Play-Doh came in these individual packs and we bought 50 of them for $15.

I'd say 80% of the kids chose Play-Doh and virtually 100% of the parents were thrilled we weren't handing out more candy.

The best line of the evening came from a 7 or 8 year old goblin. When offered the choice between Playdoh and gum he asked,

Umm...the Play-doh, can you eat it?
When we told him no, he chose the gum.

The picture by the way, that's me and my beautiful daughter. Sorry it's blurry. One of my patients actually made me the Burger King costume.

I think it's a fitting costume...after all, Halloween's supposed to be scary.