While, it’s not our place to wax on about the ways in which our country’s political rhetoric has changed, we would like to reminisce on the lost art of the campaign button. Unlike the gaudy and contrived pins of contemporary campaigns, classic buttons were crisp, clear, and generally just far more iconic. Some of them are bold, like Ike’s countless punchy slogans (he must’ve had quite the copywriting team) while some of them just seem absurd, as in Edmun Muskie’s fishing pin, but they’re all worth remembering, even if the candidate was not.
All button images via eBay, which is a treasure trove of forgotten political memorabilia.
These campaign buttons are all partisan. Don’t you have any neutral ones? ‘May the better man win;’ ‘Let’s have a good, clean election;’ that sort of thing?
Because partisans are the one people who wear buttons.
I meant “only,” not “one.”
There is an incredible series of pins for Jacob Javits 1968 senatorial campaign designed by Jason McWhorter under the art direction of the one and only Milton Glaser. Really amazing graphic design work.
http://instagram.com/p/x7nBtTnw6v/
Too bad they didn’t make a “I like Ike…and Dick” pin