Discovered Universal Button

White background with thin small black text curling at the top of the button. Below the small text is large bold black text. The bottom half of the button has an illustration of two cartoon boys. The one on the left has black hair and has his hand cupped over his mouth. He is speaking to the second boy on the right who has red hair and freckles. 

Universal Button Company, established in 1962, was a manufacturer of fabricated metal products, including badges and emblems. Located in Bethnal Green in London’s East End, they were responsible for producing some of the most iconic badges of the late 1970s. In honor of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, political activist Sherri Yanowitz created a badge to mark the occasion. The “Stuff the Jubilee” button was an anti-monarchy protest on the cost of the event as the county’s unemployment rose and public funding was cut. Sherri Yanowitz recalls,  “I ordered 4000 badges from the Universal Button Company in, they sort of laughed at me. The same company had the order for hundreds of thousands of pro-monarchy items. In the end, we sold over 40,000 in less than three months.” In 1977, the company received an order to produce The Sex Pistols, “God Save the Queen” badges but refused due to their loyalty to the Queen.