Black text on a white background with an outer red and white striped edge

Have info on this button? Contact us here.

Blue text on a white background

In response to the cookie-cutter, conformist lifestyle of the 1950s, an emerging generation of post-war youth decided to turn American culture on its head. The 1960s and 1970s saw the counterculture unfold as new music, films, and recreational drugs helped shape the new era. Peace-loving hippies and the creative beats of The Beatles were all the rage at this time and helped fuel the counterculture movement. People were even famously urged to “turn on, tune in, and drop out” by psychologist Timothy Leary.

In addition to the hippie lifestyle, the counterculture was also characterized by the sexual revolution. Old behavioral codes related to sexuality saw a drastic change-up as more people were accepting of contraception, abortion, and public nudity. Though the United States generally condemns public nudity today, it fit the prevailing attitude of the 1960s that called for sexual liberation.

Red text on a white background

The Go Fly a Kite Store is a hobby store based in New York City. The name of the store references an idiom meant to tell someone to go away who is being annoying that gained popularity in the 1940s and has been used in pop culture decades later.

The 1964 Disney classic film Mary Poppins put a spin on the action of flying the kite as an enjoyable family enterprise and something that should be done to take a break from work, in an iconic scene influenced by the book, but not directly taken from the text of P.L. Travers original story.

Kites were invented in Asia with the oldest known depiction of the act of flying a kite dating to the mesolithic period 9500-9000 years B.C.E. In the modern age, kites are flown as a recreational hobby, scientific and military apparatus, and for sport.

Black and red text around an illustration of shoe prints on a white background

AIDS Walk Philly was established in 1987 when volunteers from Penguin Place, a Philadelphia lesbian and gay community center, recognized a need to raise funds for local agencies and increase public awareness of AIDS. The first walk raised $33,000 and in the following 33 years the annual event has raised over $16 million dollars with proceeds funding disease prevention, HIV/AIDS public awareness campaigns, and services for those living with HIV/AIDS in the Philadelphia region. Initially the branding for the first three walk-a-thons used only the phrase “From All Walks of Life” due to the stigma at the time surrounding AIDS, though by 1990  “AIDS Walk” was added to the walk-a-thon’s promotional materials.

Blue text on a white background

Know information about this button? Contact us here.

Black text on a white illustration of a mug on a black background

Since 1980, Ephemera, Inc. has made buttons, magnets, and stickers out of their San Francisco, California headquarters. The company started out by producing pin-back buttons for local punk rock bands but later branched out to manufacture a variety of small trinkets. Today, they are located in Phoenix, Oregon and consider themselves a “maker of funny, sarcastic and offensive” buttons.

Coffee became a common beverage in the West after the mid-seventeenth century. From England to Italy, hundreds of coffee houses sprang up and became places where people could socialize all while sipping a cup of the new drink of choice. Many enjoyed it for its energizing effects, which quickly catapulted coffee into popularity. But before it replaced beer and wine as a breakfast favorite, coffee was initially viewed as the “bitter invention of Satan.” It was not until Pope Clement VIII decided to try a cup for himself that coffee was given papal approval, quelling the unfounded fears of the Catholic masses. Today, coffee is still in fashion. The variety of flavors and additives that individuals can choose from are only multiplying as the demand for personalized brews increase. Phrases like "insert coffee to begin," "but first, coffee," and "caffeine addict" are widely circulated and recognized.

White text on a black background

A curse word used to express disbelief in an event or piece of information presented as true when it is false. Literally, the feces from the animal, a bull. The first attested use of the term bullshit appears in a piece written by T.S. Eliot entitled "The Triumph of Bullshit." It's a comic ballad in which Eliot preemptively criticizes himself and his works before his critics could. The term bullshit only appears in the title.

White text on a red background

Have information about this button? Contact us here.

Black text over a blue background with white fish shapes

This phrase “Are we kinder and gentler yet” was made famous by George HW “Poppy” Bush during a 1988 campaign speech. These buttons were made in opposition to the future president’s position.  The background is made up of bombs in a blue sky referring to the Gulf War. The phrase was again brought to popularity in 2010 by Sir Elton John, when he stated that the USA was a “mean-spirited nation” and he “hoped it would become a kinder and gentler one”.

Dark pink text on a yellow background

Adults Only signs were created by businesses to mark areas unapproved for children. This could be due to products pertaining to sex, or due to the availability of alcohol as is the case with nightclubs and bars.