Posted 11 years ago
aghcollect
(2304 items)
This is a pinback button with the "I Am Loved"® saying from the Helzberg Foundation (Helzberg Diamonds) - it is 1" in diameter / history as follows:
** I Am Loved® was conceived in 1967 by Barnett Helzberg Jr., the third generation president of Kansas City-based Helzberg Diamonds. The I Am Loved® campaign was announced in a newspaper ad in The Kansas City Star in November 1967. Helzberg initially ordered 50,000 buttons, but the supply was exhausted almost immediately. The company placed emergency rush orders to meet the button requests. Within weeks, I Am Loved® became a national movement - it seemed everybody, everywhere, wanted buttons. Helzberg obliged all requests for buttons at no charge, whether the request came from a community where Helzberg had a store or not - and many did not. I Am Loved® buttons quickly made their way to loved ones in Vietnam, and at Christmas Helzberg offered to send a postcard with a button to any serviceman free of charge. The buttons were immediately popular with religious groups and schools, and it wasn't long before I Am Loved® spread around the world. Helzberg began producing buttons in French, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Japanese, Italian, German, Hebrew, Chinese and Portuguese. These buttons are still given away free at any Helzberg Diamond location.