ABSTRACT
From 1953 to 1959, the National Key Company of Cleveland turned a modest profit manufacturing stick-on initials for key chains. Beginning in September 1959, however, sales under-went a sharp increase. Department chains, drug stores, and supermarkets clamored for more of the product, of which there were a dozen types ranging in price from a dime to a quarter. Altogether, ten million initials were purchased during 1959. Looking into the matter, the company discovered that the up-surge in demand had resulted from teenagers utilizing the initials in myriad unorthodox ways, including: identification on eyeglasses, button earrings, earmuffs, bicycles, guitars, sweat shirts, hair bands, checkers, and dog collars; humorous assessments of others. Shortly thereafter, sales of the initials returned to the less spectacular levels of years past. It would appear to have been no coincidence that monogrammed items of a personal nature e.g., coffee mugs, sweat shirts, key chains, pens became a staple in countless retail outlets from that point onward.
