Notes

Stickers: A Gummy History


Stickers can be described as a piece or material made of paper that has one side coated with a substance to allow it to stick to a surface. vinyl graphics Wow! That is quite a confusing definition for a simple concept. It is possible that the sticker was discovered by ancient Egyptians trying to advertise daily market specials. Or, it could have been created by a Department of Defense contractor, who was looking for a way to distinguish the dangerous from the less-dangerous. If one of these explanations is true, it is difficult to determine which is correct. So let's consider the third option. Apparently, European advertising gurus came up with the idea to help consumers identify products by their colorful paper labels somewhere in the early 1880s. The gum paste was used to attach the colorful labels to paper. This concept was used primarily for fruit products, at least initially. The competition was fierce among orchards, so owners used stickers (also called lithography) to draw attention to their fruit. The labels would be stuck to the side of the cedar crates that were full of fruit and ready to sell. The concept was also used widely on vegetables cans and on cigar boxes.



Stickers evolved a bit to pre-apply the paste to the back of the stickers and let them dry. Then, by applying water or saliva to the sticker surface, the past would activate and the sticker could be placed on a surface. These types of stickers were very popular as travel and luggage stickers and are considered to be collectors items today.

From the pre-pasted, the concept of stickers evolved when R. Stanton Avery manufactured the first self-adhesive labels. The label/sticker that Avery designed had a paper surface with a coat of adhesive which was then stuck on a liner. The liner had a special silicone coating that enabled the label to be removed and stuck to other surfaces. Stickers today still use the basic premise of the self-adhesive label that Avery invented. Stickers have been a popular marketing tool for all sorts of household products for over 50 years. Bumper stickers are also part of popular culture icons and fads because they can be used for political or social commentary.


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