We often associate Play-Doh with the pure, unadulterated fun of our childhoods. There's just something about the putty toy that brings us back, and we still hold those memories near and dear to our hearts. Besides the fact that this joy in a plastic jar had the potential to damage nearly every couch or carpet, there's one other thing about the product you likely remember: its scent. It was distinct, for sure, but we never could quite pinpoint what it smelled like. Luckily, someone else did, and it now officially has a fragrance description.
In fact, Hasbro Inc. is trying to trademark the scent itself. Teen Vogue found the request application on the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which contained one of the most unexpected descriptors we've ever seen. According to the website, Play-Doh’s fragrance is a “unique scent formed through the combination of a sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, and the natural smell of a salted, wheat-based dough.” How's that for appetizing?
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Hasbro, Inc. wants to trademark the smell of Play-Doh. Here’s how they officially describe it. pic.twitter.com/DVKg59bbkg
— Avery Gilbert (@scienceofscent) February 24, 2017
To be honest, the description does seem quite fitting, in a kids-think-everything-is-food sort of way. Still, we never would have described its aroma as anything remotely close to "cherry" — or gourmand, for that matter — even if we did mold it into a fruit basket or biscuit during play time. Now that we think of it, we always did favor the real-deal bread dough.
So why the trademark after all these years? The company wrote that “[it] has become distinctive of the goods/services," which we can certainly agree with. That doesn't mean we want to bottle up the scent and spray it on as perfume, but we will admit our inner child delighted just a little knowing that the iconic clay is as unique as we always remembered.