Light blue button with black text and two hearts with the soap opera titles in them. A little cherub holds the hearts. 

“Love in the Afternoon” was an advertising campaign for General Hospital from 1975 to 1985. It focused on the love lives of the main characters of the show.

General Hospital is an American soap opera that has been on air for over 50 years! The show was created by husband-and-wife duo Frank and Doris Hursley. Set in the fictional town of Port Charles in upstate New York, the show follows the loves, lives, and danger of all the characters. General Hospital has won countless awards for Daytime Emmys like Outstanding Drama Series, Lead Actor/ess, and Supporting Actor. Further, the show has won awards by the Directors Guild of America for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Daytime Serials and by the Writers Guild of America for Daytime Serials. The success of General Hospital has led to the creation of spin-off dramas.

One Life To Live was created by Agnes Nixon and premiered in 1968 and ran through 2013. It was one of the first shows to depict people from all different backgrounds, interracial relationships, and drug addiction. It focuses on the Lord family in Pennsylvania. Its main character, played by Erika Slezak, won a record six Daytime Emmy Awards. 

Black text with the image of Garfield the cat laying on a beach under an umbrella with a drink.

Garfield, the most widely syndicated comic strip in the world since 2002, was first published in 1978. Cartoonist Jim Davis decided to focus his comic on a cat to fill what he saw as a hole in the market. Davis was a business major at Ball State and worked in advertising, and always acutely managed Garfield as a brand as much as a comic. He recognized the marketability of animal characters and noticed that there were many popular cartoon dogs, but no cats. So he created Garfield, naming him after his grandfather John Garfield Davis, a man Davis said had "a gruff exterior but a soft heart."

An image of Mickey Mouse in a rocket ship being chased by Pete in a UFO with red and yellow text. 

Disney Comics was a publishing company, owned by The Walt Disney Company, that operated from 1990-1993. The company was created so that The Walt Disney Company would not have to rely on other publishing companies to continue publication of their comic book series, which began in 1940. Early in the history of the series, the comic books primarily contained reprints of Disney comic strips, but by the mid 1940s, original stories and serials were included in the books. In addition to Disney Comics, the comic book series has been published by six other companies over the years.

The whole button is illustrated with an image of Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother in the foreground with the mice, including Gus Gus. In the background, the carriage drawn by horses is pictured and so is the castle. 

The illustration depicts Cinderella and her Fairy Godmother savior, from the feature film Cinderella, produced by Walt Disney and released on February 15, 1950. Cinderella is a folk tale about a young woman living in undesirable conditions, whose fortune is suddenly changed in her favor. There are thousands of variations of the story from around the world. Cinderella is considered to be representative of both Disney's "golden era" animations made in the 1930s and 1940s, and the less critically-acclaimed productions of the 1950s. The film received Academy Award nominations for Best Sound, Best Song and Best Original Score, and was re-released in theaters in 1957, 1965, 1973, 1981 and 1987, before being released on VHS and laserdisc in 1988. 

The title character's style and mannerisms in the 1950 film were largely based on Helene Stanley, the live-action model for Cinderella and one of her step-sisters, Anastasia, as well as Ilene Woods, Cinderella's voice actress. Artist Salvador Dali influenced Cinderella's dress that is torn up by her step-sisters, and the gown Cinderella wears to the ball was inspired by French haute couture, specifically Christian Dior's style, which became well-known in the US in 1947. 

Image of a cartoon character on a white hill with blue sky in the background. The character has a red coat on and red feathers. 

The Shmoo was introduced in the Li'l Abner comic strip in 1948. Created by cartoonist Al Capp, the Shmoo is shaped like a bowling pin and is very amiable. It also reproduces prodigiously, and its only wish is to help mankind. In the comic strip, the multiplying Shmoos are eventually deemed a menace and hunted down. Though the Shmoo appeared sparingly in Li'l Abner, it inspired nearly 100 products and became a pop culture sensation. Candy-filled Shmoos were even dropped over West Berlin as part of "Operation Little Vittles" during the 1948 Berlin Airlift. The Shmoo also generated debate about its social implications as an allegory on mankind's greed.

Orange text over a photograph of Harrison Ford.

The 1982 science fiction film, Blade Runner, depicting future Los Angeles, was directed by Ridley Scott and stars Harrison Ford as detective Rick Deckard. Decades later, Ford reprised the same role in the 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049.

Black text on a white button around a grey image of a statue of Lincoln's head

This button was made in the early 1900s. The image is of the head of the statue in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., which was built between 1914 and 1922. This statue was meant to convey Lincoln's strength and compassion.

Efforts to create a memorial for Abraham Lincoln began in the 1860s after the President's death. Plans to create a memorial were discussed again starting in 1902 under President McKinley, but met with controversy over where to build it and what it should look like.

White button with a yellow rim and blue text. The image of a bell with a crack is centered. 

AFSCME, American Federation of State, Country, and Municipal Employees, is the largest trade union of public employees in the United States. Formed in 1932, by Wisconsin workers who feared they would lose their jobs due to lack of patronage in the Great Depression, the individuals created a "professional civil service" agency to advocate for the group. Throughout the years, the AFSCME organized lobbying and demonstrations in political arenas.

The Liberty Bell is a symbol of American Independence. The Bell System, including the American Bell telephone company, adopted the symbol of the Liberty Bell as their logo for several years. The company installed and operated telephone lines and service until becoming part of the giant corporation American Telephone and Telegraph, AT&T, a regulated monopoly in the telephone industry.

IBEW stands for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, an organized union of members and retirees forming several fields related to electrical work in North America. The IBEW acts as an advocate for wages, benefits, and rights.

The symbol depicted of the union being a "bell buster," is likely referencing a dispute involving IBEW, American Bell, and AFSCME. In cases like these, unions could work together or oppose each other in negotiations.

In 2018, Janus v. AFSCME was heard as a Supreme Court case. The case was in regards to a prominent labor law that determined union fees in the public sector violate the first amendment. This decision required public-sector unions to offer their services to members without requiring them to pay fees and dues. Naturally, union groups like the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) were opposed to this decision. It capped their ability to generate revenue and created unnecessary expenses, weakening the union. Although, in the aftermath, many union members are reported to have stuck together and continue to pay dues and fees willingly to keep the union strong.

Yellow button with black rim. One image reads "Your Kind of Taste" and the other reads "Dos Equis XX" in black and red text. 

Dos Equis is a lager brewed by the Cervecería Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma brewery. Originally the brand was brewed by a German-born Mexican national named Wilhelm Hasse in 1897. The brand was originally named Siglo XX, which translated to “20^th century”. The name “Dos Equis” translates to “two X’s”. 

White button with red bubble letter text.  The image of a an smiling apple, with carrot hair, a bean nose and blueberry ears is in the middle of a clock face that is just about at noon is in the middle. 

“Do it Right at Lunch” was a slogan used for Novia Scotia’s Nutrition Week in 1981. March is now Canada’s annual Nutrition Month, which promotes the health and learning of the children and youth.

Nutrition Month originally began in the 1970’s as Nutrition Week in local communities, however, in 1981, these efforts were collaborated to create the first National Nutrition Week across Canada. By the end of the decade, the promotion became Nutrition Month. Continuiung each year, Dietitians of Canada chose the theme based on the current environment and input from members, such as the 1994 campaign “Nourish our Children’s future” or 2012’s “Get the real deal for your meal.”