Etch A Sketch | toy: Geoffrey's Etch A Sketch

Charles P. Lazarus founded Toys”R”US in June of 1957. Prior to that, Lazarus had created Dr. G. Raiffe as an ambassador for his Children’s Bargain Town store, which sold baby furniture and toy merchandise. In 1965, Lazarus had Dr. G. Raiffe rebranded as Geoffrey the Giraffe. Geoffrey served as the Toys“R”Us brand mascot. The artist who designed the original Dr. G. Raiffe made the Toys”R”Us version much more lifelike, and a store associate renamed him Geoffrey. The giraffe appeared in print ads throughout the 1960s and early 1970s. He made his first commercial debut in 1973. Throughout the 1980s, Geoffrey made in-store appearances and marched in parades. He also traveled in the Geoffreymobile, a double-decker bus fueled on potato chips, and resided in his lighthouse in New England. Although Geoffrey was reinvented over the decades, he was a household name.