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From the Archives: Kick a Puppy Today
Status: Weird history
Nowadays antisocial merchandise has become quite popular. It's easy to find t-shirt and stickers with all kinds of rude messages. Prankplace.com sells quite a few of them. And Despair.com has a whole "demotivational" product line with messages such as "For every winner, there are dozens of losers. Odds are you're one of them."But one of the first people to think of selling antisocial merchandise was Charlie Hollis, who back in 1963 printed up stickers with messages such as KICK A PUPPY TODAY and STAMP OUT WHOOPING CRANES. The idea came to him one Christmas when he got sick of all the holiday cheer. He placed an ad for his stickers in Village Voice, and they became incredibly popular. Time magazine reported that he caused an "epidemic of sick stickers now appearing in public and private places all the way from San Francisco to St. Thomas."
I posted a brief article about the "Kick a Puppy" campaign in the Hoaxipedia. However, I have no idea what became of Hollis. He'd be in his 80's if he's still alive. Strangely, no one today seems to be selling merchandise with his messages -- even though I imagine they'd still be pretty popular. I'd wear a "Stamp Out Whooping Cranes" t-shirt.
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Categories: Pranks Posted by Alex on Tue Jan 08, 2008 |
Comments (7) |
| More from the Hoax Museum Archives: | |||
Maybe he copyrighted the phrases/images & just isn't letting people use them?
Posted by Maegan in Tampa, FL - USA on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 04:10 PM
Maybe he kicked one too many puppies and got torn to shreds by the mother. Or maybe he went into politics.
Posted by Christopher Cole in Tucson, AZ on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 08:31 PM
Those both sound like good causes. I'd proudly wear either on a shirt to voice my support.
Posted by Archibold on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 10:03 PM
>>Maybe he copyrighted the phrases<<
I don't think you can copyright phrases. They're too short. But you could trademark them.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 02:09 AM
I don't think you can copyright phrases. They're too short. But you could trademark them.
What do you have against whooping cranes?
God knows they have enough troubles.
Posted by Big Gary in Matagorda, Texas on Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 03:21 PM
God knows they have enough troubles.
This t-shirt made me think of you guys, so I had to add it to the t-shirt discussion. I think it's more site-appropriate than Stamp Out Whooping Cranes, personally.
http://www.threadless.com/product/886/Cryptozoology
Posted by Anne (in Reno) in Reno (duh) on Wed Jan 09, 2008 at 11:27 PM
http://www.threadless.com/product/886/Cryptozoology
Actually Charlie Hollis was a pseudonym - his real name was Bernard Lander and he was my father. Growing up(I was born in 1965), he used to proudly show me a closet full of his bumper stickers and sweatshirts. I was twelve when he first showed them to me and we had a lot of laughs over that.
After working for Time Magazine as a copy editor, he started an art import business with my mother called Poster Source, which introduced poster art into the US in the early 1970's.
He died a few years ago at the age of 82.
Posted by Harry in New York on Sat Dec 25, 2010 at 09:45 AM
After working for Time Magazine as a copy editor, he started an art import business with my mother called Poster Source, which introduced poster art into the US in the early 1970's.
He died a few years ago at the age of 82.
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