Thursday, April 22, 2021

Button, Button

I recently found this sheet advertising "Fun Paks" of buttons made by the Badge-a-Minit company of LaSalle, Illinois.  These buttons would be sold on a display carousel in "high traffic retail locations".

It's a fun slice of 1970's humor.

I would guess this flyer dates from the mid 1970's.  Some tipoffs are the following buttons which place them solidly in that 1975 to '78 era:




I'm not familiar with the significance of "Wanna Buy A Duck", but apparently it was a gag of 1930's comedian Joe Penner.  I'm not sure how that would have ranked a button in the 1970's.

I won the button below at a carnival around 1978.  The reversible face fascinated me. Hey, I was easily amused.

Badge-a-Minit is still in business, although their business focus these days appears to be selling pinback button makers.

8 comments:

  1. Ouch! That's a lotta punctured nipples right there (Speaking from experience).

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    1. Youch! I remember being nervous pinning these things on too.

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  2. I like the "start a movement eat prunes". I always was easily amused by potty humor.

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  3. these are great. i agree these are mid-1970s, the peanut/Carter one definitely dates it, along with all the CB- and disco-related ones. that confederate flag one (yikes) also puts it around that time, because that's when southern rock was big. these are fun!

    up until just a month or so ago, i had the option of personalizing my checks (remember checks?) with various "flavor" images, and one of them said "Keep on Truckin'" -- but it wasn't the R. Crumb image, it was just groovy text, alas. i kept getting it for my checks for decades because i figured if nobody used it, they would discontinue it. i just had to reorder last month, and they got rid of almost ALL the personalized images except for ornate monogrammed initials and sports teams (curses!). i'm sad.

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    1. You always create your own custom ones. https://www.extravaluechecks.com/ads-photo-checks-bogofs?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvYSEBhDjARIsAJMn0lgaakmpo-IHZIBM2gvvWFr8HJAmOn6fmBg4v1_Yfd3tGS7XtOsrDUkaAi8oEALw_wcB

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    2. those all seem to be backgrounds -- this was just a bug/icon/slogan next to your address in the upper left. it was a simple thing, but i'm sad i can't get it anymore.

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  4. Very cool advertisement. I reckon a lot of those buttons would be collectible these days, after having been so common and disregarded nearly a half-century ago. I've picked up a few buttons here and there, but have tried not to go down the rabbit hole of collecting then.

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