
The Industrial Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries, following Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1438, led to a surge in the creation of promotional products. New manufacturing techniques allowed businesses to get more creative with items they used to advertise themselves; one newspaper printer once used his printing press during off-times to print a shoe store logo onto bags to be given to customers. Bookmarks and even branded corkscrews and pocketknives also came into play in the early days of promotional products.
These types of products can also be a reflection of culture changes. For example, ashtrays and matches used to be highly popular promotional products; but now that smoking is less prevalent in our culture and flameless candles have made a rise, you don’t see them as much anymore.
Promotional products can be cultural icons and markers of a certain time period. Make your mark on today by seeing what Benefit has to offer? Come partner with Benefit together we can come up with something that will make its mark on history.