FANFAIR ARTICLE "A CERTAIN FLARE" FEATURING the Resurgence of "Signature Matchbooks" [branded matches]
This article celebrates the resurgence along with the relevance and effectiveness of branded restaurant matches right after several major cities had implemented their smoking bans, circa July 2000.
The article's writer Steve Garbarino, made the argument for restaurants to continue purchasing and distributing their decorative advertising matches for them to serve the important purpose of being used as an alternative [functional] business card.
The majority of the matches pictured in the article happened to be produced by Joe Danon such as PASTIS, MATCH, MOOMBA, JOE'S PUB, CAMPAGNA, BAR CODE, FLORENT, CAFE LOUP, ODEON, LEMON, BOND ST,RESTAURANT DANIEL and ASIA de CUBA.
Branded match boxes and match books act as viral advertising that are used as an effective method for recommending a restaurant by being passed by a person who had a pleasant dining experience at the restaurant to their friends and family.
Historically, advertising matches have always been treasured as collectibles and as mementos of good times and travels that continue to make their intended repetitive impression on the restaurants' clientele until the last match has been struck -and sometimes even years later!
To order your business' own branded matches call 800.605.7331 or goto TheMatchGroup Today!
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.
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?
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. 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!
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).
I've noticed that my blog posts that feature FEATUREMatchBooks with special printed match stems seem to receive a lot of hits! I happened to stumble upon and repost this item from the blogger The Invisible Agent, who tastefully posted a nice collection of Lion Match Corp's 21 "Feature" #matchbooks that featured #printedmatchstems.
The Match Group is proud to announce that we now offer the a modern version of the "vintage" printed match feature option for you to promote your business! Feature match books are highly collectible and are a big hit on social media sites like Instagram and Pinterest!
We will be adding more info on our site.
In the meantime, here are some pics of 2 different style match books that we now offer that include optional special feature matches!
Contains either the standard width feature match stems or special die cut shaped matches that can also be custom printed!contains 2 rows of 5 Special printed wider feature matches
