Bargain Icons
When we began considering advertising mascots to profile, part of our thought process included widely recognized icons. Those of us in the creative industry are driven to hopefully invent a lasting impression on our audiences. The best place for a designer is to become embedded into pop culture. (You all know by now how much we love pop culture relevance.) While looking into some celebrated design jewels, we discovered their intrinsic value is bargain basement. Their deeper, chord-striking value is…ahem…priceless.
“It will grow on me.”
While we suspected it to be graphic urban legend, we discovered the bargain-priced Nike “swoosh” story to be true. In case you haven’t heard it, Nike’s logo was created in 1971 by Carolyn Davidson, a graphic design student at Portland State University. She met (future Nike CEO) Phil Knight while he was teaching accounting classes. Davidson agreed to provide design services for $2 per hour. Looming production deadlines forced Knight to settle on the swoosh after rejecting others. At the time, he paid $35 for the logo and said, "I don't love it, but it will grow on me."
Today, most global brand evaluators place the Nike logo in the top 15 most recognizable symbols. Obviously spending a bazillion media dollars helps, but do you think Carolyn ever thinks, “Damn. I bet I could’ve pushed for $40 for that swoosh”? (Note: We have also heard Knight later provided her with some shares of stock once he realized how great of a deal he got.)
Speaking of bargain symbols…
The ubiquitous yellow smiley face was created by Harvey Ball in 1963 for an insurance company’s employee morale campaign. Ball never attempted to trademark it. Soon “Smiley” fell into U.S. public domain. His total income for this round grandpa of emoticons was a whopping $45. Have a nice day, Harv. : )
So, serendipity plays a big part in making some icons. Right place, right time, right voice, right marketing investment with the moon and stars in alignment. Ashton B. Collins he was not.
You want me to eat what?
Heard of Spam? No, not the email. The canned meat. The OG.
Ever wondered about the name? Kenneth Daigneau, the brother of a Hormel vice president, dreamed it up when the first can of luncheon meat was produced in 1937. Billions and billions of canned pink goodness have been sold since. Matter of fact, each year more than 90 million cans are sold in the U.S. alone. (Whipping out or calculators…) That’s three cans every second!
Daigneau was paid $100 for the name. What a bargain. Without him, it’s hard to imagine it would have survived with runner-up names like Crinkycrinky or Canned Flappertanknibbles.
The wee-wee of a generation
Kurt Cobain was the voice of a generation, but the tiny penis of a generation belonged to three-month-old Spencer Elden of Los Angeles. Spencer was the baby on the cover of Nirvana’s iconic Nevermind album. The cover’s photographer, scrambling for the swimming baby, called his friend Rich Elden. Mr. Elden had just become a new dad. Baby Spencer gets tossed into a pool. Dad got paid $200. Grunge history is made.
Each of these examples demonstrates the creation of a potentially empty thing. Without hundreds of million invested, we may not have ever heard of these phenoms. Makes us wonder. With enough bank, can any nondescript trick become a pop culture sensation? Looking at you, Paris Hilton.