Icon Analysis

What do the hula hoop, silly putty, and Bugs Bunny have in common? They are all icons. The hula hoop dates back to ancient Greece where it was used as a form of excersize (Wiki 2008). The hula hoop, for those that don’t know, is a large ring generally placed around the waist and by swiveling your hips the hoop goes round and round. Of course that is not the only way to play with the hoop but it is the basic way. As with the hula hoop, who doesn’t know what silly putty is? It has been around for 50 + years. Silly putty was created in 1943 in a scientist’s laboratory and introduced to the world in 1950 (Benny 2000). Silly putty is a gooey substance weighing one ounce, packed in a plastic egg (Benny 2000). You can stretch it, bounce it, and lift an image from the newspaper with it. The last of my chosen icons is Bugs Bunny. Not quite up there with Mickey mouse but a favorite none the less. “What’s up Doc?” is kind of like “Whatz poppn’”. Bug’s was “born” in 1940 and is still around today (Wiki 2009). Bug’s is a cartoon rabbit you can watch on television and even the movies. Bug’s is also the mascot for Warner Brothers (Wiki 2009).
I chose the hula hoop as an icon because prior to this assignment I had just bought one for my youngest daughter of 6 years. I chose the silly putty because I remember what an amazing thing this item was when I was a kid. Silly putty was, to me, better then sliced bread. Bugs Bunny really seemed like an icon to me just like Mickey Mouse.
These 3 icons have special meaning to me. As a young girl I played with the hula hoop and to this day I play with my girls using the hoop. Although, I no longer can make it go round and round my girls seem to get a laugh from it. And laughter from my children is an amazing, wonderful thing. I can remember sitting at the kitchen table waiting for my Papa to give me the comics from the Sunday morning paper. I would use the silly putty to lift the images then stretch them out of shape, and most of all sharing my joy with Papa. Again, on Sunday morning I would sit in the living room with my siblings, 1 sister and 4 brothers, watching Bugs Bunny. That was the one thing that we all agreed on.
Binney., & Smith. (2000.). Silly Putty History 101. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from
http://www.sillyputty.com/history
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2009). Bugs Bunny. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugs_Bunny#History
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (2008.). Hula hoop. Retrieved April 9, 2009, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hula_hoop