Illustration of a hand with legs and the middle finger up on a bright yellow background

This button was one of many sold at The Big Store in New York City. Prominent during the 1960s and 1970s, The Big Store specialized in counter culture, anti-Vietnam War, and psychedelic novelties. 

White block text and an illustration of a person holding their head in their hands on a pink background

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Illustration of a rabbit standing on its hind legs holding a large orange carrot with black text on a white background

This caricature is not the official Bugs Bunny; however, it still captures the essence of him based on artistic similarities and the showcasing of his popular catchphrase "What's Up Doc" which highlights his sarcastic humor as it caught the attention of his friends and foes in every adventure he embarked on.  

Red and white text on a yellow background

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White text on a blue background

To “stamp out” means to suppress or end something that is bad or unpleasant, which in this case is reality. Stamping out reality is closely tied to escapism, which can be defined as a diversion of the mind to escape from reality or routine, such as daydreaming. It is a coping strategy that involves evading the real world in an effort to find refuge, security, and tranquility in a fantasy world.

Illustration of Gorbachev made to look like an animal wearing a pointy hat on a red background with white text

This button parodies former head of state of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, combining his face with the former mascot of Anheuser-Busch's Bud Light beer, Spuds MacKenzie. 

Spuds MacKenzie was a bull-terrier, and made its debut in an advertisement for Bud Light during Super Bowl XXI in 1987.  The character, described as "The Original Party Animal", quickly rose in popularity and became the source of controversy.  Interest groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving stated that Spuds MacKenzie was being used to target children through advertising.  Anheuser-Busch retired the character in 1989.  However, in 2016, Spuds MacKenzie returned for a new Bud Light advertisement during Super Bowl LI.

Mikhail Gorbachev was the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union from 1985 until it's dissolution in 1991.  During his time in office, he enacted economic and cultural reforms that relaxed social control, offering citizens new freedoms that they had not previously experienced, but also damaged the Soviet Union's economy to the point that the Communist government collapsed.  Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev has remained active in politics, attempting to start several social-democratic parties in Russia.

The origin of the button may be due in part to the potato being a staple crop of the Soviet Union, and may also be due to Gorbachev's distinctive port-wine stain birthmark on his forehead resembling Spuds MacKenzie's dark facial markings.

Photograph of a mummy character with blue text on a white background

This is one of the buttons from the Batty Buttons Universal Monsters collection created by Tops, a manufacturer of pinback buttons and other collectables. The Universal Monsters buttons came in 8 varieties and each one features an iconic monster from Universal movies. This button features the “Mummy”, a monster seen in Universal’s The Mummy (1932), The Mummy’s Curse (1944), and The Mummy’s Tomb (1942). 

White text on a blue background

Anti-corporatist sentiment reached all-time highs with the 1848 release of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist Manifesto. The political document helped frame all of history as a class struggle between corporate masters and their poor laborers. Anti-corporatist activists continue to harken back to this foundational text to inform their worldview. Generally, they believe that large corporations pose a threat to free society and that business tycoons are “manipulating government” and “creating false needs in consumers.”

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 (Ephemera, Inc., n.d.).

Black illustration of a longhaired man holding a surfboard with black text on a yellow background

“Pray for Sex” refers to graffiti painted on a rock on Makua Beach in Oahu, Hawaii using the humorous play on a surfing term. Local surfers originally used the common phrase “Pray for Surf” which changed to “Pray for Sets” referring to “sets” of waves. In the 1960s, “Pray for Sex” was spray-painted on a large rock and has since become part of the surf culture lexicon.