Black text around an illustration of a guy wearing a red shirt and pointing to his head on a white background

Rube Goldberg, the cartoonist responsible for this line of "I'm the Guy" buttons is more famously known for his illustrations of inventions that were funny and complicated. His name is in the Webster dictionary and is defined as "accomplishing by complex means what seemingly could be done simply". He was a dedicated cartoonist, doing both political and comical cartoons. Goldberg is also a founding member of the National Cartoonist Society whose Reuben Award is named after his proper name, Rueben.

The popularity of the "I'm the guy..." slogans caught the eye of tobacco marketers. So if you wanted one of these buttons back in the 1910's, you'd have to buy some of their cigarettes. 

There was even an "I'm the guy" song !

White text on a red background

Perfection Cigarettes are a brand of Allen & Ginter which was a tobacco manufacturer out of Richmond Virginia in 1865. In 1890, Allen & Ginter along with four other manufacturers joined forces to form the American Tobacco Company. While many cigarette brands issued pinback buttons as purchase incentives in the 1890s-1910s, Perfection Cigarettes are the only brand to issue exclusively red and blue text-only buttons with phrases of popular phrases of the day such as, “Good Night!”

Illustration of a bald man in profile looking in a mirror with black text underneath on a white background

The illustrator of this button, Rube Goldberg, is synonymous with complicated inventions that perform simple tasks. An engineer and inventor, Goldberg also drew several comic series, including Mike and Ike (They Look Alike), Boob McNutt, and The Weekly Meeting of the Tuesday Women's Club. In the series featuring Professor Lucifer Gorgonzola Butts, Goldberg drew schematics of the comical gadgets by which he came to be known.

Goldberg was a founding member and first president of the National Cartoonists Society, whose Reuben Award for cartoonist of the year is named after him. He received a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning in 1948, and in 1995 was honored with a commemorative stamp as part of the "Comic Strip Classics" series from the U.S. Postal Service.

This button was part of a set of 376 known buttons, issued as premiums primarily with Hassan and Tokio cigarettes. They featured cartoons by artists such as as Rube Goldberg, George McManus, Bud Fisher, Hal Hoffman, and others.

Illustration of a a boy's head on a blue background with black and white text above and below it.

In the mid 1960s, the fast food chain Burger Chef joined with the comic strip The Family Circus in an advertising campaign. The Indianapolis-based chain, which began in 1954, was a competitor of McDonalds, and launched numerous ads in attempts to become number one in the fast food industry. Their campaign with The Family Circus contributed to their success and at their peak in 1973 Burger Chef had over 1,000 locations. However, the chain was sold to Hardee's and the final Burger Chef closed its doors in 1996.

The Family Circus was created in February 1960 by Bill Keane. The comic, which appears as both a daily strip and Sunday strip, is about the Keane family's daily suburban life centering on the children in the family. Featured on the button is PJ (Peter John), the youngest of the characters, was introduced on August 1, 1962. Appearing in over 1,500 newspapers, The Family Circus is now one of the most famous comic strips in the world.

Illustration of a black cat with a big yellow bow around its neck and black text on either side on a white background

The Chicago-Rockford Hosiery Company introduced Black Cat Stockings in 1897. Ads as late as 1900 described the product as "triple knee leather stockings for boys". The company's later introduction of White Cat Underwear lead to a spin-off company, which would eventually become known as Jockey International, Inc.

Illustration of cheese on a plate on a white background with an outer green edge with white text

The Green County Cheese Day began in 1914, after local business men attended Sauerkraut Day in Forreston, Illinois and became determined to host their own food related celebration. In 1916, festival attendees witnessed 2,000 pounds of milk turn into a giant wheel of cheese, a 2 mile long "Panorama of Cheeseland" parade that included clowns and caged animals, and consumed 15,000 cheese sandwiches. Today the festival is held in September in even years, and features concerts, parades, and a cow milking contest. A king, queen, prince, princess, and ambassador are selected by popular ballet and preside over the festivities. 

Red text around an illustration of a clown on a light cyan background

The Ice Capades is a traveling ice skating show that began in 1940 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The use of portable ice skating rinks started in the 1950s which allowed the show to perform in many different arenas. In 1962, a feature of the show for the 22nd edition of Ice Capades was a circus on ice. It included clowns, people in animal costumes, and acrobats wearing skates. 

White text around an illustration of a person putting their foot in their mouth on an orange background

The phrase “I can’t believe I ate the whole thing” premiered in a television ad for the Alka-Seltzer company in 1972. In an interview, Howie Cohen, an ad man from the Doyle Dane Bernbach advertising company, described that the phrase was something he uttered spontaneously after a large meal, to which his wife told him, “There’s your next Alka-Seltzer commercial.” The ad and phrase remained popular in American culture for years to come. In fact, the humorous phrase was used in a season four episode of the television show The Simpsons, attached to the notoriously food-focused character Homer Simpson. 

Brown text under an illustration of the back of a cow with an illustration of a rope around the outer edge on a white background

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Blue text over a red illustration of a telephone on a white background

Alexander Graham Bell invented the world’s first telephone in 1876 with the help of his assistant Thomas A. Watson. Upon completing his prototypes for the telephone, Graham sought to test its capabilities. With two phones he conducted the first ever phone call in history to his assistant in a nearby room. The first words Bell spoke over telephone were: “Mr. Watson, come here, I need to see you.” This button has similar phrasing but with a humorous intent of a frustrated Bell repeatedly requesting help but seemingly being ignored.