LIGHT MY FIRE: THE MATCH BOOK MAKES A CULTURAL COMEBACK

FAST COMPANY article from February 4, 2011 Light My Fire: The Match Book Makes a Cultural Comeback

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LIGHT MY FIRE: THE match book MAKES A CULTURAL COMEBACK.

Great feature about the resurgence of match books that are now being used by the entertainment and retailing industries to promote their bands and their brands!

AS THE SMOKE CLEARS FROM BARS AND RESTAURANTS, MATCHBOOKS FIND NEW INDUSTRIES -- FROM FASHION TO MUSIC -- TO CALL HOME.

Juicy Couture has had original designs created to sell in stores, and music venues. Many Indie, Hip Hop and Rock Bands have started handing matchbooks out at gigs out in place of pricey T-shirts.

"Fire speaks so instantly to life," says Yael Alkalay, founder of Red Flower, a New York bath-and-body company. After suffering a stroke more than a decade ago at age 26, Alkalay recovered and started the company with a newfound appreciation for the everyday. Aside from coupling matches with the purchase of candles, Red Flower hands out 50,000 matchbooks to customers each year as mementos of the store. "Matches have a certain charm," she says. "If you've got them, you've got light, you've got warmth."

To place your order to put a light on your business or band get in touch with TheMatchGroup or call one of our expert match makers at 800.605.7331 and get in on the ”Hot Match on Striker Action” that's happening right now!


Video Highlighting the Colorful History of Match Advertising! Design Your Company's Own Branded Matches Today!

[youtube=http://youtu.be/JVGQm0QiT9U]

Video Highlighting the Colorful History of Match Advertising and Philluminy (match collecting).

Design Your Company's Own Branded Matches Today!

Call TheMatchGroup at 800.605.7331 and order your promotional matches. After proof approval, expect them to ship in about 10 working days!


HOW IT'S MADE, MATCHES. A very informative video featuring how matches are made. Filmed at D.D. Bean and Sons in NH.

HOW IT'S MADE, MATCHES.
A very informative video featuring how matches are made. Filmed at D.D. Bean and Sons in NH.

Check it out!
[youtube=http://youtu.be/T2-aioCAjOE]


 PINUP GIRL ADVERTISING MATCHBOOKS

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PINUP GIRL ADVERTISING MATCHBOOKS

Believe it or not, the pinup girl genre dates way back to the 1860's!

They made their first appearance on advertising matches in the 1930's and gained popularity during World War II when the image of a gorgeous girl temporarily took the soldiers' mind off the war by acting as their only link to their world back home.
Their selection of pinup's took the form of a lithographed pinup calendar, an advertising matchbook, or a print ad that featured a pinup that was torn out of an American or European magazine. Most GI's in the service had their favorite taped inside their footlocker lid.

These fantasy women were first known as 'Petty Girls', named after the artist George Petty, which were popularized by Esquire Magazine's ribald cartoons during the 1940's and 50's. The depictions of scantily clad and voluptuous women were featured in magazine calendars, centerfolds, cartoons, advertisements for cigarettes and cars and many were painted on WW II warplanes!

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In the late 1950's and early '60's the attitude and fashion of vintage pinup girls went mainstream quickly moving from the centerfold straight to the front cover. Millions of advertising matches were distributed by every category of business that ran the gamut from Gas Stations, Bars, Restaurants, Hotels/Motels, Florists, Jewelers, Retailers, Trucking Companies, Car Companies, etc. The advertisements were initially drawn with illustrations by renowned pin up artists Rolf Armstrong, and Gil Elvgren and Vargas. Later photos of real models and movies featured pin up girls in their provocative poses and fashions. Marilyn Monroe who was Earl Morans' favorite model before and after she became a movie star, Rita Hayworth, Betty Grable, Esther Williams, Jane Mansfield and last but not least; the "edgier" Miss Bettie Page
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Pin up fashion and art has proven to be resilient. Over the past several years independent burlesque troupes have exhibited at mainstream venues in every major city, as well as a resurgence of Rockabilly fashion, Retro "Hot Rod" magazine style pin up fashion in which many young people mix with their interests in music, hair styles, tattoos, hot rod culture and retro motorcycle fashion

Pinup girls, pinup art along with pinup style and pinup fashion's resurgence has been confirmed by being featured once again in movies and magazine ads, as well as being adopted by pop singers like Katy Perry, among other celebrities like the cult figure Dita Von Teese.

New books and related images are being published featuring the great artists of the past. Original paintings are highly sought after and commanding sale prices that reach into the ten of thousands of dollars at auction! This wonderful American art form hasn’t received this much attention, or enjoyed as much popularity since it’s heyday from the 30’s to the 50’s.

To order your own pin Up matches to promote your business be sure to get in touch with TheMatchGroup or call one of our experienced "match makers" at 800.605.7331.


Where Did the Term "Three on a Match" Originate?

Where Did the Term "Three on a Match" Originate that implies that it's bad luck to light three wooden tapers or cigarettes with one match from a match box?

THREE ANSWERS:

1) Three is the symbol of the Holy Trinity.

To make mundane use of a match was to defile its sanctity and to transgress holy scripture. Man would invite disaster and put himself into the power of the 'evil one.' Thus, the use of a single match or lit wooden taper, would light the fires of Hell for one's own soul.

2) Self-protection in time of war.

The superstition first arose among British troops during the Crimean War. British soldiers, entrenched against Dutch foes in the Boer War, learned by bitter experience of the danger of lighting three cigarettes from one match. When the men thriftily used one match to serve three of them, they gave the Boer Sniper time to spot the light, take aim and fire to kill 'the third man'.

3) Ivar Kreuger, the President of The Swedish Match Company who was known as the 'match king', certainly did not create the term or the superstition surrounding it, as it has been alleged back in the 1930's. But he certainly exploited the term to promote sales for his company's matches! He surmised that most people, innately thrifty, were not using enough of his matches through their habit of conserving them by using a single match to light multiple candles, cigarettes, etc. After his successful campaign perpetuating the superstition of the wartime precaution and it's association with the mortal consequences of using just one match, he earned millions of pounds of profit for his company by greatly increasing sales of his Swedish Matches.

There was also a famous movie Three on a Match
That was based upon the story of three friends from childhood, Mary, Ruth, and Vivian, who meet again as young adults after some time apart. They each light a cigarette from the same match and discuss the superstition that such an act is unlucky and that Vivian, the last to light her cigarette, will be the first to die.

Make sure to load up and avoid the curse of THREE ON A MATCH by buying your own batch of branded matches for your business from TheMatchGroup or call one of our experienced "match makers" at 800.605.7331.