Tunnel of Love

Red rim and blue text on top of an illustration of blue water and a dark blue tunnel with red text on a white background in the center of the tunnel

In the 1940s, a series of risqué pinback buttons became infamous as gumball machine and carnival prizes. These small novelties boasted bold, comic-style lettering and cheeky illustrations, often framed by red or blue borders. Their humor relied on double entendres and mild innuendo, pushing the era's boundaries of decency while remaining tame by today's standards. 

"Pardon Me! Haven't We Met?" captures the Tunnel of Love's risqué reputation in pinback form. These 1940s-50s carnival and gumball machine prizes thrived on delivering sly winks about the ride's notorious dark corners where strangers sometimes became acquainted. The button's faux-innocent question packaged adult humor for teenagers palming coins, making it the perfect pocket-sized rebellion. Similar to the popular carnival barkers of the time, these buttons said the quiet part out loud, with just enough plausible deniability to keep them spinning in gumball machines everywhere.