An industry isn’t built in a day. The current state of promotional products is the result of decades of innovations, phenomena, milestones and tragedies. With this list, the Counselor team has undertaken the ambitious task of identifying the 70 biggest events in the history of promotional products – ranked in order of their influence and impact on the industry. The catch? All the events must have occurred in the last 70 years since Counselor first published. (Well, except for one major exception. You’ll see.)

This list kicks off a full week of content celebrating’s Counselor’s 70th anniversary. There will be contests, interviews and predictions. But first, the events that defined an industry and an era.

70

Fidget Spinners

69

AI

68

Funeral Directors

67

Synanon

66

Tobacco Ban

65

Bobbleheads

64

Stanley

63

Para-Gift Closes

62

International Biz

61

POY Speech

60

ETS Defeats S’well

59

Tariffs

58

Supply Chain

57

Cannabis

56

Fisher Space Pen

55

Gulf War

54

Bicentennial

53

SAAI Show

52

Pharma Ban

51

Excise Tax

50

Marilyn Monroe

49

Franchising

48

Cup Holders

47

Under Armour

46

Hard Goods + Apparel

45

CorpLogoWare

44

Cyrk

43

HALO Bankruptcy

42

DTG Printing

41

Gas Crisis

40

Norwood

39

Product Safety

38

YETI

37

MAGA

36

American Apparel

35

Plastic Bag Bans

34

$1B Distributors

33

Apparel Suppliers

32

Casual Friday

31

Top 20

30

9/11

29

Social Media

28

Bumper Stickers

27

Earth Day

26

Rush Ordering

25

Regional Shows

24

Price Fixing

23

E-Distributors

22

Catalogs

21

ASI Show

20

Ann Morrisey

19

iPhone

18

Private Equity

17

Coffee Mugs

16

Fax Machines

15

K-Studio

14

Email

13

Mass Decoration

12

Amazon

11

Ballpoint Pens

10

Education Day

9

Great Recession

8

Personal Computer

7

China

6

COVID

5

Release of ESP

4

$1B in Sales

3

The Cohn Family

2

SAA Merger

1

Founding of ASI