Illustration of a blue unicorn in the center, blue text above and below image on a yellow background.

This unicorn lover may have been either a salesperson or a customer at the Unicorn City Corporation that was located at 55 Greenwich Avenue in New York City. The gift shop opened in 1976 and the company permanently dissolved in 1993.

Dark blue letters with white background.

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Black text on blue background.

"That waz cool" is a common expression and has possibly been re-popularized by the cartoon characters Beavis and Butthead. The non-standard spelling "waz" is considered a fashionable spelling of "was,” and is embraced by young people, especially in texting. Before the spelling was standardized in the 18th century, "waz" also appeared in public records.

White text on a red background.

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Black lettering and bold white shadow lettering on orange background.

Although the act of streaking has been popular since the mid-1960s, the term "streaking" was first used in 1973. The term was coined during a mass nude run at the University of Maryland. Streaking is different from nudism, because the streaker intends to be noticed by an audience. It is also different from "flashing", in that it is not intended to shock the victim. Perhaps the most widely seen streaker in history was 34-year-old Robert Opel, who streaked across the stage flashing the peace sign on national television during the 46th Annual Academy Awards in 1974. The high point of streaking's pop culture significance was in 1974, when thousands of streaks took place around the world. A wide range of novelty products were produced to cash in on the fad, including buttons, patches, and t-shirts.

Read more about the History of Streaking Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

Plain black text on hot pink background.

The phrase “Stamp Out Mental Health” first appeared in an article published in The Canadian Medical Association Journal on July 10, 1965. The article told the story of an advertising executive who disseminated the phrase, and “flooded his native state with bumper stickers proclaiming in scarlet letters”.  The story was a satirization of the role of advertising in public health messages, which can fictionalize the real health campaigns.

Black hand-drawn font style with white background.

The Peanuts comic strip featuring Charlie Brown and found in newspapers around the world has its own dedicated fan base. There is often contention within fan groups and one argument with Peanuts fans centers on Charlie Brown’s dog, Snoopy. Snoopy had been in the comic strips since the beginning, but eventually evolved to be more than just a simple dog, developing a personality of his own. By 1966, Snoopy was starting to develop into a central character, away from the lives of the Peanut gang. 

For many fans, Snoopy became a fan favorite and is seen as keeping the Peanut franchise alive, amid declining popularity. On the other side, some fans blamed Snoopy for the decline in the comic’s quality. Often large amounts of panels would be dedicated to Snoopy alone. He could take up over a third of a strip's story and took away attention from the other characters. This dislike has led to several counter-culture Snoopy jokes, one such being that the character sniffs his iconic airplane’s glue.

Yellow button with an illustration of a black smiley face. The right eye is slightly larger than the left eye.

The classic yellow smiley face is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It  was designed in 1963 by by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions.

The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.

Black and yellow smiley face with black text on a red outer ring.

Although the act of streaking has been popular since the mid-1960s, the term "streaking" was first used in 1973. The term was coined during a mass nude run at the University of Maryland. Streaking is different from nudism, because the streaker intends to be noticed by an audience. It is also different from "flashing", in that it is not intended to shock the victim. Perhaps the most widely seen streaker in history was 34-year-old Robert Opel, who streaked across the stage flashing the peace sign on national television during the 46th Academy Awards in 1974. The high point of streaking's pop culture significance was in 1974, when thousands of streaks took place around the world. A wide range of novelty products were produced to cash in on the fad, from buttons, patches, t-shirts, etc. Ray Stevens had a novelty hit called "The Streak" and Randy Newman even had a song about streaking called "The Naked Man".

This button features a variation of the classic yellow smiley face that is comprised of a yellow circle, two black dots for eyes and a black arc ending in serifs for a mouth. It  was designed in 1963 by by commercial artist, Harvey Ross Ball. Ball was commissioned by The State Mutual Life Insurance Company to create a happy face to raise the morale of their employees. His version was created in 10 minutes. The design was printed onto more than 50 million buttons. Neither Ball nor the company copyrighted this smiley, so it was continually used by other businesses in their promotions. 

The design and concept is quite simple and was definitely used before Ball’s 1963 version. However his has become the most iconic. Variations have been used for advertising campaigns and in popular culture ever since.

Read more about the History of Streaking Buttons on the Busy Beaver blog.

Orange background that changes from black text to a black peace sign to a black smiley face ans the button.