Etch A Sketch sales up over 1,500% after Romney campaign gaffe

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may not be president yet but his campaign is already helping to improve the economic outlook for one company.

Ohio Art told Raw Story on Thursday that the company welcomed a spike in share prices and toy sales after a Romney staffer's gaffe that compared the campaign to an Etch A Sketch.

"It's very exciting," Ohio Art spokeswoman Nicole Gresh remarked.

During a Wednesday interview on CNN, John Fugelsang had asked Romney Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom if an extended primary against Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum would “force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election?”

“I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign,” Fehrnstrom replied. “Everything changes.”

“It’s almost like an Etch A Sketch,” he added. “You can kind of shake it up and restart all over again.”

By the end of the day, both Santorum and Gingrich were bringing the mechanical drawing toys to their political rallies, and Ohio Art's stock price had more than tripled from $4 to $12.50 at closing. At the time of publication, shares were up 241 percent over Tuesday's closing price.

"Happy to see Etch A Sketch, an American classic toy, is DRAWING attention with political candidates as a cultural icon and important piece of our society," Ohio Art said in an email to Raw Story. "A profound toy, highly recognized and loved by all, is now SHAKING up the national debate. Nothing is as quintessentially American as Etch A Sketch and a good old fashion political debate."

Gresh told Raw Story that Ohio Art would be sending Etch A Sketches to Romney, Gingrich and Santorum in the near future.

"The left and right knobs on the Etch A Sketch appeal to both parties," she explained.

Update: Ohio Art Senior VP Marketing & Product Development Martin Killgallon explained the surge in stock prices to Raw Story.

"We feel our stock has gone up over the past 24 hours due to an increase in consumer exposure and an anticipated increase in product sales," he said.

And Killgallon could be right because Etch A Sketch sales are up over 1,500 percent on Amazon since Wednesday morning.

Watch this video from CBS News, broadcast March 21, 2012.