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).

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

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

    ReplyDelete
  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.

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

      Delete
    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.

      Delete
  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.

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...