Crayola sends dandelion packing, makes room for new blue

A dandelion crayon character poses for photos during a Crayola event in Times Square, Friday, National Crayon Day, when Crayola officially announced that it's replacing the color dandelion in its 24-pack with a crayon in "the blue family." New York, New York, March 31, 2017. | AP Photo/Richard Drew, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Dandelion yellow has reason to be blue, but not without the retiring crayon going on a nationwide tour.

Crayola leaked Thursday and delivered its official announcement Friday, National Crayon Day, that it’s replacing the color dandelion in its 24-pack with a crayon in “the blue family.”

The color will be revealed in May but the company says it will leave it to fans to come up with a name for the replacement color sometime this summer.

In the announcement made from Times Square in New York Friday morning, broadcast live on Crayola’s Facebook page, Smith Holland, president and CEO, greeted the audience giving special acknowledgment to kids. In his remarks, he spoke of the company’s mission:

We’re over 110 years old as a company, but what’s really special about Crayola is we’ve been guided by the same mission since we started: We’re in the business of helping parents and teachers raise creatively alive kids. We believe creatively alive kids grow up to be creatively alive adults. And in the world we live today those are the types that make big change in the world happen.

It’s only the third time in Crayola’s long history that it has retired one or more colors, The Associated Press reported, and the first time it’s swapped out a color in its box of 24. Other colors that previously got the boot include maize, raw umber and orange yellow, it said.

L-R: Melanie Boulden, Crayola’s senior vice president of U.S. and global marketing and a dandelion character who, Boulden said, prefers to be called Dan D, during a Crayola event in Times Square Friday, announcing Dan D’s retirement. New York, New York, March 31, 2017 | Screenshot from a Facebook live broadcast by Crayola, St. George News

The Dandelion character likes to be called Dan D, Melanie Boulden, Crayola’s senior vice president of U.S. and global marketing, said during the live broadcast. He is not going to just disappear, she said, but will be embarking on a retirement tour across North America and the company wants fans of the crayon to follow Dan D’s tour on instagram and participate in various ways, including telling the company where they’d like him to go next. More information and video about the Dandelion tour are provided on the Crayola Tour webpage.

Crayola crayons were first produced in 1903 by Binney & Smith Co.

Crayola is based in Easton, Pennsylvania, and is a subsidiary of Hallmark Cards Inc., headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

AP contributed content is Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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