Campaign buttons: Popular then, price-tagged now.

By Kathleen Megan There was a day when you could walk into any candidate's headquarters and leave with a fistful of buttons--all for free--and the encouragement to pass them out to your friends.Nowadays, unless you live in Iowa or New Hampshire--where the candidates can't afford not to be generous--you're far more likely to have to purchase campaign novelties such as buttons, probably from a private vendor, often online.Experts on the subject such as Larry Bird--the curator for the Smithsonian Institution's political campaign collection, not the basketball player--say this has to do with the emphasis on buying TV time."They would much rather put the money into television time, which is something they feel they can measure," said Bird. "There's a complete lack of understanding about campaign buttons. They are so used to polling, to focus groups--things you can measure."The campaign button is hardly on the way out. Just check the candidates' Web sites and dozens of other vendor sites, and you'll see plenty of buttons.But the button as a freebie seems to be on the decline--a situation that Bird and other button aficionados and plenty of ordinary people find strange, given the willingness of the populace to be walking billboards for one candidate or another."If I was Barack Obama, I would want to see my button everywhere it could be, and I wouldn't charge money for it," said Bird. Handing out a button or any other campaign paraphernalia is "really a symbol of activism and engagement in the way that a television spot is not."If you can get someone to wear your buttons, it's better than getting someone to watch your commercial, and that should be your goal."Reid Cherlin, Connecticut communications director for Obama, said, shortly after the Super Tuesday Feb. 5, the campaign typically charges for buttons because there is such high demand. (A check of the Obama Web site showed that many of the campaign buttons are back-ordered.)"Otherwise, we would be producing an endless supply of buttons," he said. "This is just a way for us, when we are competing in 22 states, to try and control the expense."However, he said the campaign wouldn't turn someone down if he can't afford a button, a bumper sticker or a yard sign. "We have a suggested contribution that helps us produce more of these materials," Cherlin said.He said he wasn't sure when campaigns started charging for buttons, but it pre-dates the dawning of the Internet/YouTube era."However, people do love the buttons, we love the buttons and we wish we had enough that we could give as many as everyone asks for," said Cherlin. On the other hand, buttons that go directly into someone's personal collection don't help the campaign, he said.At the Clinton campaign, Brian DeAngelis, the communications director in New Haven, Conn., said the campaign hands out buttons free to volunteers for as long supplies last. Buttons can also be purchased online. (Clinton's Web site did not show any back-ordered buttons; all seemed to be available now for order.)Several calls to John McCain's national headquarters in Virginia were not returned.Betsy Storm, an Obama volunteer from Illinois, said she bought 200 campaign buttons that she has been handing out to people when they ask."It's the best way to engender conversation about a candidate, to give you a chance to talk to people about your candidate. It creates buzz and conversation," she said. "Funny, it's such a low-tech thing in a high-tech world. It's nice, with buttons, you don't need a password."Why do we love campaign buttons? Wayne Fields, director of American culture studies at Washington University, says it's less about the candidate and more about ourselves."The buttons we wear are statements for the candidates, but we wear them because they are statements about us," said Fields. "They show that we have opinions and rights to our opinions and we don't care who knows them. ... It's about individualism as much as it's about party loyalty We are advertising for ourselves."Campaign buttons are also part of the "circus atmosphere" that has always infused American politics, said Fields. "You have parades, balloons and enthusiastic celebrations, and buttons are a part of the color of it. They go along with all the bunting and the ticker tape."Bob Thompson, a professor of popular culture at Syracuse University, said people also like the buttons as souvenirs. "When you vote, you get nothing to put in your scrapbook," he said, whereas you get a ticket stub at a concert.Bird said that often when he goes into a campaign headquarters on election eve to collect memorabilia, he'll find it cleaned out, except perhaps for a few DVDs."OK, I'll take a couple of those," he'll say of the DVDs. And then he sees the pin on the worker's lapel. "How about that lapel pin? 'Oh, I can't give you that', they say."If only the campaign would "act on those feelings" and make more pins, said Bird.Adam Gottlieb, president of the Northern California chapter of the American Political Items Collectors, said buttons are "as American as jazz or the skyscraper or the hot dog--they are one of those American inventions uniquely linked to our heritage."They can be traced back to George Washington's inauguration in 1789, when actual clothing-type buttons made of copper or brass, some stamped "GW" or "Long Live the President," were sewed onto supporters' coats. With the introduction of a ferrotype photo process, the likeness of a candidate was available to Abraham Lincoln's 1860 campaign. The buttons were actually more like badges, worn with a pin or tied to a lapel with a ribbon.The celluloid pin of today, with the metal backing and pin, had its start in the 1896 campaign between William Jennings Bryan and William McKinley. Gottlieb said this new process of button-making "allowed you to print on paper and have it encased in what was a celluloid covering. The result was a durable button with vibrant colors and beautiful, ornate designs."As the sales of decades-old buttons on eBay attests, there are legions of collectors, willing to pay significant money for them. Rare 1920 buttons backing James M. Cox for president and Franklin D. Roosevelt for vice president have sold for $25,000 to $40,000, according to Curtis Lindner, a collector and dealer in Redding, Conn. There are plenty of buttons, he said, that sell in the $2,000 to $3,000 range. Cherlin, the communications director for Obama, said he was constantly asked for buttons while in Connecticut. In fact, at the time of this interview, he was without a button. "I was at Max Bibo's, and the woman behind the counter was saying how she much loves Obama and believes in him and wishes she had a button," so Cherlin gave his to her."I figure my chances of getting another button are better than hers," he said. A*LATWP News Service Campaign buttons: Popular then, price-tagged now

2003 Jordan Press & publishing Co. All rights reserved.

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company