Meahan, 32, a district manager for the Hoover Company, came up with the idea five years ago when he and his wife, Laura, 31, a buyer for 3M Fiber Optic Products, were strolling in a park and met a friend whose baby was sucking a traditional pacifier. "I thought, 'Babies are so cute, but then you put those ugly things in their mouths,' " he recalls. "Then I thought about those wax lips from Halloween." Laura liked the idea, and so did her father, Tim Brennan, 58, a semiretired engineering executive who agreed to help Chip work on a prototype. "We had a joke," Tim says, remembering the trial-and-error process. "I'd say, 'How's it going, Chip?' and he'd say, 'it sucks.' " Now Pacifaces have been ordered by such toy-business titans as F.A.O. Schwarz and Toys "R" Us. Some 100,000 Pacifaces have been wholesaled since the product was introduced last August (suggested retail price: $5). Brennan and Meahan expect to sell a million of the small soothers this year.
Meahan says he is well prepared for the day he may have children of his own: "I have a warehouse full of pacifiers." He feels most small fry get the joke. "Little kids have a pretty good sense of humor," he says. "My sister's 1-year-old thinks he's a riot." Confirmation of the hilarity comes from Vero Beach, Fla., customer Heidi Rose, who says that when she took her 7-month-old son, Freddie, to the mall wearing a Paciface, he stole the show. "He enjoyed the attention," she says, "as much as my husband and I did."
Nobody, though, is savoring the spotlight as much as Meahan. "It's not how I planned to make a name for myself," he says, "but it's a great way to be remembered."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
