2
Business View Magazine
Pump it Up (Fun Brands)
Pumping up the play – pumping up the profits
It’s no secret that we love our birthdays. Why else would
the Guinness Book of World Records list “Happy Birthday
to You” as the most recognized song in the English lan-
guage? And since we love our birthdays somuch, it’s also
reasonable to assume that we love our birthday parties.
Why not? Birthday parties are meant to be fun – espe-
cially for kids. Of course, sometimes they can be stress-
ful for parents, but that comes with the territory. Indeed,
most American parents probably throw some kind of
birthday party for their kids, almost every year – and they
have the pictures and videos to prove it! Typically, in our
culture birthday parties are private affairs, as opposed
to public celebrations. The people attending them are al-
ways invitees, and most often, they are close family and
friends. That’s the way most kids want it, and the way
most parents require it; rarely is a birthday party open to
strangers.
Fifteen years ago, in Northern California, those details
seemed evident to two women entrepreneurs who had,
according to Lee Knowlton, the CEO of Fun Brands, a na-
tional leader in the field of family entertainment, “a great
