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Contact: Sloane Imrie
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DONALD TRUMP INSPIRES KEN ‘DR. FAD’ HAKUTA
TO RETURN TO THE SPOTLIGHT
WITH AN ‘APPRENTICE-ESQUE’ SHOW FOR KIDS

The World Thought He Was Crazy, And Now The World Has Finally Caught Up

When he put his Harvard MBA and job at the World Bank on the line to focus efforts solely behind a little, rubber toy-spider called the Wacky WallWalker, he was considered crazy. However, this gutsy move led Ken Hakuta to sales of more than 240 million for the fad-toys and an equally successful fortune for himself. Later, when he took the WallWalker off the market, despite strong sales, to dedicate himself to challenging kids’ creativity, he was considered crazy again, but this time, the move led to the best-selling book “ How to Create Your Own Fad and Make a Million Dollars” and the highly-rated and widely-syndicated “Dr. Fad Show,” during the course of which he inspired thousands of kids across the country.

With his crazy passion for and fascination of reality and the power of human creativity, which are now being reflected in network TV schedules overrun with reality shows, if he was crazy years ago, it seems as though American culture has finally caught up to him. If, today, Dr. Fad is walking around with a big smile his face, it is because he sees the irony in the fact that America, with its current zeal for reality TV, is living out the biggest fad ever -- being the fad itself.

Now, with his “Dr. Fad Show” more popular than ever and airing in Korea, he wants to take reality-mania to where it can do the most good, to the kids. That is why he has gone back into the studio and is currently taping the pilot for “BIG IDEA,” a show much like a younger version of “The Apprentice,” in which kids’ creativity, ingenuity, and ability to work within a team are challenged in pursuit of $250,000 – the seed money one winner will receive to start a business at the close of the show.

“Reality TV is a classic fad,” remarks Hakuta. “Typically, a fad follows a very sharp bell curve pattern: achieving overwhelming success until saturation is reached, and then experiencing a very quick dip not long before going the way of the pet rock. When a fad is up at its apex, it seems like it will last forever and then, all of a sudden, it’s over. What I find most exciting about reality TV, as a fad, is that it can really make a difference in kids’ lives. We must extract the important lessons, like the power of creativity, and use them to motivate a group upon which it is becoming harder and harder to make an impression.”

When the reality fad took off, it’s not like Dr. Fad had nothing to do. Ken, who Morley Safer once said was the best profile he ever did for CBS Television’s “60 Minutes,” and the founder of AllHerb.com, once valued at more than $250 million by Goldman Sachs, never stands still for long. In recent years, he outbid Oprah and Bill Cosby for an entire village of Shaker furniture, which he put on exhibit and was on an international tour. Dr. Fad was also in high-profile conversations to buy the ailing FAO Schwarz toy store late last year (to save Christmas for New York!) and has recently taken over the management of the Nam June Paik Museum for his uncle, world famous video-artist Nam June Paik.

“With kids watching shows like ‘Survivor’ and ‘The Apprentice,’ I thought this idea to use the reality format to reach kids was such a great opportunity,” Hakuta explains. “The chance to use a show like this to demonstrate what kids’ minds are capable of, is just too great of one to pass up.”

Crazy, just crazy