Celebrating my 100th Blog Entry!

celebrate

Suppose, just suppose, I gave you, innovative reader — a mission. Design an innovation that instead of meeting a need or want within a given culture, changes that culture massively, creates a new need and only then meets it.

Meet Webkinz.

Webkinz pets are lovable plush pets that each come with a unique Secret Code. With it, you enter Webkinz World where you care for your virtual pet, answer trivia, earn KinzCash, and play the best kids games on the net!

So – where is the culture change?

One of my friend told me that in one of Haifa’s leading  schools, BOYS come to school with plush toys (perhaps, a little cat or dog) —  yes, macho 12-year-old boys with skinned knees and a broken front tooth — that embody their Webkinz pet. During the lunch break,  the boys feed their toy cats, because the Webkinz website says they have to feed it, or it will be unhappy. Or play with it, sing to it, put it to sleep or pet it. 

As every parent knows, the culture of young boys is fiercely resistant to all efforts to civilize or tame it. The peer pressure of their friends provides a powerful magnetic shield against all parental efforts to penetrate it. 

Webkinz_dog_23Aug08
Let’s tip our hats to Webkinz. They create demand for plush toys by literally bringing them to life, through a magical website. If they can change the culture of 12-year-old boys, perhaps it is possible to change, with innovations,  the culture of adolescents, senior citizens, terrorists, bond traders or politicians.