Why the Rubik’s Cube Was One of the First “Viral” Sensations
And why word of mouth advertising works
There was a toy back in the 80’s that was truly one of a kind to kids. It wasn’t like an ordinary jigsaw puzzle or any other brain teaser we had seen before. I mean kids back in those days were used to playing video games like Pac Man and Tetris which were challenging to figure out how to achieve a high score that nobody could beat.
I should know because I was one of those kids who spent hours and hours in the arcade trying to beat the high score.
Video games such as these were extremely popular, and kids loved to compete and figure out new ways to ‘beat’ the game for better scores. There was no Internet so getting these hacks was a little more difficult.
Kids were used to video games and board games such as Monopoly in which they knew what score or what opponent they had to beat. So, it was very competitive and kids could brag to their friends that they had the high score for Donkey Kong in the arcade.
But when a small company nobody had heard of before came along with their new 3-D combination puzzle nobody knew what to make of it. This square looking toy had six sides with each side having different color stickers: white, red, blue, orange, green and yellow.
