Do You Like Chicks

Do You Like Chicks Ice Breakers Busy Beaver Button Museum
Category
Ice Breakers
Additional Images
Do You Like Chicks Back Ice Breakers Busy Beaver Button Museum
Sub Categories
Animals
Illustrations
Birds
Rebus
Text on Button DO YOU LIKE
Image Description

Blue text and illustration on a white background with a blue border.
Back Style
Unlocking pin
The Shape
Circle
The Size
1 1/4 inch
The Manufacturer
Johnson Smith & Co.
Additional Information
The term "chick" as slang for a young woman gained popularity in the late 1920s, reflecting increasingly informal language trends of the era. This usage would have been more prevalent in casual settings and among younger groups or those involved in specific subcultures, like the burgeoning jazz scene.
 
Johnson Smith & Company began in Chicago, Illinois in 1914 as a mail-order novelty and gag gift supplier, settling in Racine, Wisconsin in 1926. Johnson Smith & Co. or Johnson Smith Company sold an array of toys including pinback buttons with suggestive slogans meant as ice breakers.  Their 1929 catalogue touts, “These Buttons provide subjects for pleasant jokes and amusing conversations, and thus smooth the way to a more familiar acquaintance and cordial friendship. They are very wittily worded and quite unobjectionable. Wear one and see the effect.”
Sources

Birnkrant, M. (n.d.). Small things: Remembering Johnson Smith & Company [blog post]. Mel Birnkrant.com. https://melbirnkrant.com/recollections/page49.html

Curious Goods 1446. (n.d.). ‘Won’t you be my baby’ vintage celluloid pinback button [eBay listing]. eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/175402616394

E-Mercantile Antiques. (2025). VTG 1930s?? Johnson Smith & Co catalog #130 novelty toys jewelry guns pistols o [eBay listing]. eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/205635513339

Johnson Smith & Co. (1929). Johnson Smith &. Co, Catalogue. Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/1929johnsonsmith0000tony/page/308/mode/2up

Johnson Smith Co. (2017). About Our Company. Johnson Smith Company. https://web.archive.org/web/20170929033510/http://www.johnsonsmith.com/aboutus/  

Price, C. (n.d.). Item Catalog Ted Hake [Pinterest pin]. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/click-to-close-image-click-and-drag-to-move-use-arrow-keys-for-next-and-previous--153192824806283578/

Sicking, E. A. (n.d.). Advertising pins: Johnson Smith & Co, novelty button/pinback (1930’s) [Pinterest pin]. Pinterest. https://kr.pinterest.com/pin/311874342964093699/

Ted Hake. (n.d.). Johnson Smith famous novelty supply house 1930s funny saying button with rebus [auction listing]. TedHake.com. https://www.tedhake.com/JOHNSON_SMITH_FAMOUS_NOVELTY_SUPPLY_HOUSE_1930s_FUNNY_SAYING_BUTTON_WITH_REBUS_-ITEM804.aspx

Ted Hake Vintage Buttons & More. (2019). Johnson Smith famous novelty supply house 1930s funny saying button with image [eBay listing]. eBay. https://www.ebay.com/itm/141168406868
Catalog ID IB0810