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In 1932, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania's newspaper, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, offered a five-week long giveaway to daily readers. "Prosperity Buttons" with serial numbers printed on them were delivered to subscribers, and each day winning numbers would be printed in the Post-Gazette, in news stories about the campaign and in the classified columns. The giveaway was intended to demonstrate confidence in the return of prosperity following the Great Depression. There was a weekly grand prize of $100 every Saturday, as well as $5, $10 and $25 daily prizes throughout the week, encouraging subscribers to read each daily paper and new subscribers to sign up for daily delivery of the Post-Gazette. 

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The now defunct Unicorn City Corporation was located at 55 Greenwich Street in New York City. The gift shop claimed to be purveyors of unicorn “gifts extraordinaire” and operated from 1976 until the company was permanently dissolved in 1993.

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The Parisian Novelty Company which was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1898. In 2008, the button portion of the Parisian Novelty Company was sold to the Matchless Group and renamed Matchless Parisian Novelty, Inc.

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Tweeduroy was a clothing line for boys by Hockmeyer Brothers, Inc., New York. Advertisements described it as the “Aristocrat of Corduroys”  known for “its beauty of pattern, rich coloring, lustrous finish and remarkable durability.” Tweeduroy was marketed as the suit for the active outdoor boy with suits made of cotton corduroy which was stronger than wool tweeds.

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The "Politeness Man" is a character featured in a comic strip of the same name in National Lampoon magazine in the 1970s. Politeness Man campaigned for good manners and against rudeness. It was drawn by Ron Barrett, a graphic artist who illustrated other National Lampoon comic strips. He has also illustrated books, including Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, written by his wife Judy Barrett.

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A panic button is generally a device one presses and activates when one wants to quickly put an extreme measure into action. Pressing the panic button is often reserved for emergency situations as is the case for car alarms, medical alerts, and home burglary systems. Activating these can summon an emergency operator or other authorities depending on the type of panic button used. Panic buttons can also be pressed for much more serious scenarios, even setting a nuclear weapons system into motion for the rapid deployment of powerful bombs and missiles.

In pop culture, there are a number of references to the panic button including pin-back buttons bearing the word “PANIC” and computer keyboard adhesives that dress one key in red and turn it into a non-functional panic button.

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Flair Fi Fo Fum was a branch of Papermate's Flair pens, a felt-tip pen popular in the 1970s. Papermate had first introduced felt-tip pens to the United States in the 1960s after their invention by Yukio Horie, and because of their success began to expand their line a few years later. In the mid 1970s they released a series of wide felt-tip colored pens called Flair Fi Fo Fum, as a parody of the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk who says “Fee Fi Fo Fum”. In 1975 Papermate released television commercials, newspaper advertisements, and buttons featuring a giant saying “Flair Fi Fo Fum” to advertise the line. The pens have since gone out of circulation, but flair pens continue to be popular.

Pen. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2015 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pen.

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The image of the button fastener meant to be stitched onto fabric is a play on words with the pinback button. Although the item is not physically holding together the person or fabric, such as a stitched button is used for, the term "holding together" can also relate to mental or emotional state.

Creative House Productions Inc. originated in 1964 and was a design and manufacturing company based in Chicago, Illinois. It was responsible for the creation of many promotional comic pins found in gumball machines and Cracker Jack boxes. Creative House eventually created the brand PinMart, which became the first website to sell lapel pins. PinMart eventually outgrew its parent company and bought Creative House in 2008.