The promotional product has a longer and stranger history than most of the brands that hand them out.
The father of the freebie
The tale that explains why promotional notebooks still work so well usually begins with Jasper Meek, a printer from Coshocton, Ohio, in the late nineteenth century, who hit upon the idea of printing a local shoe shop’s name onto burlap book bags.
It was a simple insight with enormous consequences. Instead of paying for a one-off advertisement, a business could put its name on a useful object and let everyday life do the advertising, repeatedly and for free. That basic logic has powered the industry ever since.
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