Is this one of the most creative marketing schemes of the past decade? All photos from www.dailymail.co.uk

Own it. Just about every one of us made a Play Doh car in our childhood. That wonderful modeling clay that comes in those delightfully bold primary colors that kids make into everything. Including the childhood favorite in every household, green spaghetti with yellow meatballs.

Passers-by did double-takes all day long.

It was only a matter of time before someone got the crazy idea of taking this wonderful kids craft material and making a life-sized car with it. We found that example whilst surfing the net for odd-ball marketing schemes. After seeing the end result, we found the creative marketing piece that we had been looking for.

Here’s the story behind the bold blue Play Doh car:

In March of 2011, Chevrolet commissioned a life-sized replica of the soon to be released Chevrolet Orando model in Great Britain. Using 1.5 tons of the art modeling clay from about 10,000 containers of the aquamarine blue Play Doh – at a cost of 6,000 British Pounds or about 10,258.65 US Dollars – eight model makers worked for two-week period to produce this work of art.

Adults and kids alike allowed their inner child to investigate and get a closer look at the replica car.

The stunt was created to celebrate the new Chevrolet model, a family  SUV with seven seats, that eventually went on sale for £16,395 or about $28,034.06. The press noted at the time that at those prices, you could have nearly three Play-Doh version for the cost of the real thing.

The replica car was 4.6-meters (15.09-feet) in length and was on display at various locations in Britain for a couple of weeks during the vehicle’s launch. 

Everyone loved the marketing scheme except the youth of Britain when they found the supply of aquamarine Play Doh diminished from the shelves of the local stores. Very few cans of the blue Play Doh were found in the entire United Kingdom for several weeks.