Brides Magazine Feature on Decorative Wedding Matches for Favors

Brides Magazine Feature on Decorative Wedding Matches for Favors

Article from Brides magazine dated Nov 2005 Issue "411 BRIDES parties & planning"

BridesMagazineFeatureingMatches

The feature represented 8 different decorative match boxes that were recommended and available at the time for the Bride to be to purchase for use as party favors and to pair with decorative candles.
The "Pink Stripe" patterned Cylindrical Style match box and the "Green Polka Dot" BXQ3 -20 stick Rectangular design match box were produced by the company UtilityHome where I was a partner with the very talented Graphic designer Susan Fisher. Susan was responsible for designing these two match boxes among dozens of other matches books and match boxes, as well as a range of decorative table top paper products that UtilityHome produced that included beverage coasters, place mats and breath mints for retail sale.

To order your business' own branded matches  goto:TheMatchGroup or call 800.605.7331 to speak with one of our match experts today!


Striking Images: Matchbook Advertising Article from UnderTheInfluence by CBC Rado

Fantastic Article about the remarkable story and journey of match advertising with references to some remarkable "moments in match history"     Under The Influence

Vintage Wrigley Spearmint Gum Advertising Match Book They were the first company to utilize matches in a National Advertising Campaign.
Vintage Wrigley Spearmint Gum Advertising Match Book
They were the first company to utilize matches in a National Advertising Campaign.

To order your Buisiness' own branded match books get in touch with one of our "matchmakers" at TheMatchGroup or call 1-800.605.7331 TODAY!

 


How Do You Display Your Advertising Match Collection? The Effectiveness and Lasting Impression of Advertising Matches vs. Online Social Media

Matchbox Collection Displayed in a Basket
Matchbox Collection Displayed in a Basket

How Do You Display Your Advertising Match Collection?

In a Basket, as Oversized Brandy Snifter, a special Matchbook Display Rack Hung on the Wall, or a Matchbook Cover Scrap Book?

Despite all of the hand wringing and predictions of death of the restaurant Match Book in the narrow context of a world that discourages smoking, restaurants, hotels, clubs, candle makers, etc.are still willing and enthusiastic to continue the 120+ year old practice of creating and distributing their own "miniature works of art" to serve as "Functional Business Cards" in the form of their branded match books and match boxes.

In this period of intangible social networks and "feeds" consisting  of Tweets, Facebook Updates, Instagram Pics, Foursquare Check ins, Google Searches, Yelp Reviews, etc., humans still crave something tangible and "offline" -an alternative to the flood of interruptions and distractions that technology and social media cause. In this day and age, the great majority of heavy social media users experience bouts of anxiety that sometimes leads to depression while attempting to keep up with the constant barrage of social media assaults (updates) on a minute by minute basis!

Match books and Match Boxes in their own "offline" tangible time tested way, act as link for the recipient to the experience of a time (pre-internet age) of genuine human contact that included face to face "social networking".

The FIRST Advertising Match Book. Hand Drawn and Hand Pasted promoting the Mendelson Opera Company's Performance with the Comedian Thomas Lowden.
The FIRST Advertising Match Book. Promoting the Mendelson Opera Company's Performance with the Comedian Thomas Lowden.

Over the past 120 years since the first match book was hand printed and pasted back in 1889, by the manager of the Mendelson Opera Company who had the idea to buy 200 blank matchbooks for using to hand-print advertising messages and pictures of the opera’s leading players affixed to them, we continue to seek mementos such as advertising match books and match boxes as a means to maintain a consistent, reliable and tangible connection with our past experiences and events vs. the fleeting nature of social media with our latest Tweet, Face Book post or Instagram pic. that we post with the intention to memorialize a fleeting experience only to be pushed deeper and deeper to the "bottom" of the "feed" towards the inevitable march into further oblivion thus erasing any of the experience's "specialness" thus preventing us from revisiting that special experience as it continues further downstream as the flow of newer tweets, posts, pics and updates continue to be posted on top of it.

To order your business' own branded matches that is proven to stand the test of time, contact TheMatchGroup or call one of our match mavens at 800.605.7331 and we'll hook you up!


Match Book Advertising & Free Speech: Period of the Late '60's Up to the Modern Day and Their Use During The Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Match Book Advertising and Free Speech

Student Hippies facing off against the National Guard
Student Hippies facing off against the National Guard

Just like any printed matter, match book advertising qualifies as a form of free speech in America. Therefore, making the circumstances under which the wording of a matchbook advertisement might be deemed to be an element of a crime very narrow under the First Amendment.

Nevertheless, there have been cases where matchbook advertising/propaganda has been known to test the limits of the law. For example, during the politically charged antiwar era of the late 1960's/early '70's matchbooks printed with the message "EOW" were distributed at Bloomfield State College in West Virginia. These letters stood as the acronym for "End of Week". The secret message behind these letters was passed along by the students encouraging them to burn the campus if the demands of certain student groups were not met by the end of the week.[1]

During this tumultuous period in our country's history; when our country was experiencing rampant (and deadly) college student protests against the Vietnam War and a series of riots fueled by rage in response to the news of the assassination of M.L.K. that resulted in the destruction of many major cities, match advertising was also used by "The Man" as a means to "counter" the "counterculture". "The Man" in this case was a Dallas Police Officer who decided to design and distribute his own matchbooks as propaganda to advertise his support for his fellow patrolmen with apparent success. So as the story goes, during the late '60's and early '70's members of the angry Hippie counterculture referred to Law Enforcement Officers as "Pigs." This Dallas Policeman, decided to take the sting out of the counterculture's disrespectful use of the word "Pig" by acknowledging it and to repurpose it in his own personal public relations campaign by distributing matchbooks along his beat that he had printed with the message "Leonard Edge: Pig and Proud!".[2]

The use of match book advertising by Law Enforcement didn't end after the '70's. Since then, local Police Departments and the FBI have used printed advertising matches as a method to aid in the capture of wanted fugitives, to advertise local D.A.R.E. anti-drug programs, as well as local "Cop Shot" Tips Hotline reward programs. Furthermore, back in 1995 -6 years PRIOR to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which lead to our engagement in two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the CIA and the local authorities in Pakistan had successfully distributed wanted posters along and MATCHBOOKS as a medium for advertising a $2 Million reward for the capture of wanted international terrorists such as Mir Amal Kansi who was wanted in the brutal attack outside CIA headquarters in 1993 in which two people were killed and three other people were permanently injured.[3]

To order your business' own groovy advertising matches check out TheMatchGroup
Man or call a member of our very hip and cool sales staff at 800.605.7331. who would love to turn your business' clients on to the experience of your custom branded match advertising!
[1] James v. West Virginia Bd. Of Regents, 322 F.Supp. 217 (S.D. W.Va., 1971), aff'd 448 F.2d 785 (4th Cir. 1971).

[2]  Minor v. State, 469 S.W.2d 579 (Tex. Crim. App. 1971); Minor v. State, 476 S.W.2d 694 (Tex. Crim. App. 1972).

[3] CONG.REC.H10167 (daily ed.Oct.8,1998)(remarks of Rep. Gilman);see also United States Department of State, Daily Press Briefing (October 2,1995) GoTohttp://dosfan.lib.uic.edu/ERC/briefing/daily_briefings/1995/9510/951002db.html> (visited 10 August 1999).[End page 84]

 

 


MATCH BOOKS Used by Joseph Martinez to Create His Original Oil Paintings As Mini Works of Pocket Fine Art!

Joseph Martinez Oil Painting using the inside covers of match books as his canvas!
Joseph Martinez Oil Painting using the inside covers of match books as his canvas!

A fascinating re-purposing of Paper match books that are used by the artist Joseph Martinez to create original life like oil paintings as mini works of pocket fine art!

Check out the video montage of Joseph's fascinating work on Vimeo:

http://vimeo.com/61005800

To order your business' own little work of art goto: TheMatchGroup or call one of our Match Mavens at 800.605.7331 to design your branded match books.