Promotional Items Take the Cake!

Literally.

Specially designed custom cakes have been all the rage in the past few years – which I personally attribute to the Food Network’s reality series, Ace of Cakes, about the custom cake shop, Charm City Cakes, out of Baltimore, Maryland. They make cakes in basically any shape, often for special birthdays and weddings (for those customers who can afford it at least – the cakes start at $1000.) But often times they make cakes for corporate occasions – which led me to realize that these baked goods are actually promotional items. One such occasion whereby a cake was used as a promotional item by Charm City was when they created a cake replica of the Crayola 64-color box for it’s 50th anniversary at the Toys-R-Us in Times Square.

would you marry a promotional item?

Would you ever marry a promotional item?

My coworker Kim often expresses her love for various promotional items: the Slap-On Promotional Watch, the Kikkerland Grass Custom Charging Station, the Promotional Lip Balm Sleeve. It seems like every day she has a new sample order coming in just for her, or else she's blogging about her latest promotional items obsession.

But marry one? I doubt it.

These people have taken the American love affair with commodity to the extreme. I'm a fairly liberal and tolerant person, but in this case I just can't avoid the word "sicko."

promotional items at antique sales

I'm planning to go a basement sale this Saturday at Highland Row Antiques, and I'm sure I'll be able to find some old timey promotional items collectibles while I'm there.

It's funny how we love old promotional items as kitsch -- political buttons, Coke bottles, tin signs. Mass commodification has become a folk art.

Warhol, yadda yadda.

Coca Cola even pawns off replicated, "vintage" products with their logo as expensive retail items in their gift shops and elsewhere. (I have the magnets.)

Anyway, wish me luck this weekend. Here's hoping I find some pretty, cheap placemats or chairs or wall hangings or fabric or, even, promotional items.