Will You Be My Dear

Illustration of a blue deer over a white/yellow background, surrounded by blue text and a blue rim. 

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.”

"Will you be my dear" exemplifies the playful and suggestive nature of 1930s humor, utilizing deer imagery to create a lighthearted approach to romance and flirtation. This period was marked by a cultural shift in humor, where double entendres and suggestive language became popular, particularly in male-dominated comedic contexts.