- Campaign button
Campaign buttons are used in an
election aspolitical advertising for (or against) a candidate orpolitical party , or to proclaim the issues that are part of thepolitical platform . Political buttons, date as far back as President George Washington. They have taken many forms as the technology to create an image and mass production has allowed. In the late 18th and first half of the 19th century they were real buttons sewn onto coats, whereas the modern forms typically have pins on the back and are therefore also calledpinback buttons .The first photographic image on pins dates to 1860.
Abraham Lincoln and his various opponents used the tintype or ferrotype photo process.The first mass production of metal buttons dates to the 1896
William McKinley campaign for president with "celluloid" buttons with one side of a metal disk covered with paper (printed with the message) and protected by a layer of clear plastic.Since 1916, buttons have also been produced by lithographing the image directly onto the metal disk. [
[http://www.acfnewsource.org/art/poli_memorabilia.html "Political Memorabilia"] ] Thousands of buttons are produced and distributed to the public. A celluloid-type button is fastened to a garment using a pin on the back side of the button (in recently-produced buttons, the pin generally fits into a safety-pin-style catch). A lithographed button may fasten with a pinback or with a metal tab which folds over a lapel or pocket.
One of the most famous uses of campaign buttons occurred during the 1940 U.S. presidential election, when
Wendell Willkie 's campaign produced millions of lithographedslogan buttons in rapid response to news items about PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt . [ [http://www.cresswellslist.com/ballots2/captains.htm "More Stories Behind the Buttons:Of Captains and Piglets"] ]Campaign buttons bear some similarity to
bumper sticker s, which are also used for political and other promotional messages. As anovelty item , campaign buttons are part of the hobby ofcollecting .Recently, increasing advertising expenses and legal limits on expenditures have led many U.S. campaigns to abandon buttons in favor of disposable lapel stickers, which are much less expensive. [ [http://www.igs.berkeley.edu/library/BerkeleyVoiceArticle.htm "Cal gets collectibles from old political campaigns"] ]
Another recent trend is the use of graphical campaign buttons, or "
web buttons ", that internet users can place on their personal websites. Graphical campaign buttons are useful because they can be widely distributed for little cost.However, wider availability of machines for producing celluloid-type buttons (as well as
inkjet andlaser printers and designsoftware ) now permit even small campaigns to produce or acquire buttons relatively inexpensively, even in small quantities.References
External links
* [http://www.busybeaver.net/about.html Unofficial history of buttons]
* [http://www.apic.us/ American Political Items Collectors]
* [http://www.buttonbadgelovers.com Information Forum for collectors, makers & retailers]
* [http://www.buttonbiz.com/how-to-make-a-button-animation.htm How to make a button video tutorial]
* [http://www.cresswellslist.com/ballots/buttons.htm Buttons and Ballots magazine]
* [http://mushycat.com/buttons/tour/ How I make buttons]
* [http://www.purebuttons.com/tips.php Tips on choosing a pinback button size]
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