A product that was inspired from the Canadian multicultural experience. These Crayons were designed to represent the various skin tones present in contemporary society and for children to not feel left out at play time. In the US, this little box has generated a firestorm of controversy around it but in Canada it was launched quietly with little fanfare. If you remember, there used to be a little peach coloured crayon in the previous Crayon packs called Flesh. After considerable push back from the Canadian market, this wax stick caused Crayola to reimagine their products in the early eighties. The messy situation was loud enough, that companies offering flesh tone products (ie. BandAid’s) heard it, and adjusted their approach, relaunching most products as neutral (ie. BandAids Clear), or more sensitive to the issue of race. Times change and it is interesting to see how products change with them (although this one was not not quick, it took over a decade to see the results.) Bottom image created by Nathan Gibbs.