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 The
first known promotional products in the United States are commemorative buttons,
tracing back to 1789, when George Washington was elected president. Dating back
to the early and mid 1800s are advertising calendars, wooden specialties
and the Farmers' Almanac. But it was not until the latter part of the 19th
century that an abundance of promotional products were developed and marketed,
leading to the birth of the industry as it's known today.
Jasper Freemont Meek was one of the earliest significant contributors to this budding
industry. He owned a small newspaper in
Coshocton,
Ohio,
and like many other small newspaper owners of the time, he supplemented his
revenue by taking on job printing, which utilized his printing press between
editions.
Seeing a child drop her schoolbooks in the dirt on Main Street spurred Meek to approach
his friend, Mr. Cantwell, owner of Cantwell Shoes, with an idea about building
store traffic, name recognition and ultimately increasing sales. Meek's idea was
to imprint a burlap book bag with a simple but direct advertising message, "Buy
Cantwell Shoes." Cantwell would give every child who came into his shoe store a
free bag. The children would carry the bag as they walked to and from school so
Cantwell's name would be seen all over town. Mr. Meek manufactured the book bag,
imprinted the advertising slogan on his printing press, and both Meek and
Cantwell reaped the rewards.
After launching another successful promotional product- imprinted horse covers, seen
on virtually every horse in town- Meek officially started his own innovative and
successful promotional products company, the Tuscarora Advertising Co. He
organized a sales force who until 1889, would sell specialty items with
practically no competition.
Ironically, Meek's first competitor was Henry D. Beach, another small newspaper
man in Coshocton, Ohio. Both men were aggressive and wanted to be the first to
create new products by printing advertisements on anything that could be run
through a printing press: cloth caps, aprons, hats for horses, bags for marbles,
buggy whips, card cases, calendars and fans.
Beach was the first to take an interest in printing metal signs, and soon Meek became
interested in the process as well. Both were aware that perfecting a printing
process for metal would open up an entire new product line. Both succeeded, and
although Beach managed the process first, both were successful, and proceeded to
produce metal advertising trays (Coca-Colaź and some beer companies are the best
known) which are collectors' items today.
Two more newspaper owners, Thomas D. Murphy and Edward Burke Osborne, of Red Oak, Iowa,
are credited with the birth of the art calendar in the late 1800s. Like Meek and
Beach, they needed a business to keep their presses going and to bring in
additional revenue. Osborne had an idea to print a watercolor painting of the
new Red Oak courthouse on cardboard, place advertising around the painting, then
attach a calendar pad. The calendar was an instant success, and even today, no
home or office is without one.
Selling advertising space on calendars was not new, but until Murphy and Osborne, no one
had thought of placing attractive art on the calendars. The men purchased
photographs and paintings from a variety of artists. They also improved printing
capabilities so that three-color images of original paintings could be printed.
By 1894 Murphy and Osborne employed 94 people, including 14 traveling salesmen,
and produced between two and three million calendars.
At the end of that same year Murphy and Osborne ended their partnership. Murphy sold his interest in the
business to Osborne. Osborne went on to expand the business. In order to be
closer to art and business centers, he moved the company to Newark, N. J., then
established a pricing schedule and acquired a new printing process, now known as
letter press printing. Osborne later expanded his highly successful calendar
business worldwide, setting up plants in Toronto, London and Sydney, Australia.
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