Mashable Business posted a really interesting article this week titled "The Evolution of Advertising: From Stone Carving to the Old Spice Guy". The article discussed a beautiful illustrated timeline, originally created by Infolinks.

The graphic is too large for me to repost here, so you'll have to click over to check it out.

Here are a few of my favorite parts:



2,000 responses out of 8,000 mailers?! That's an insane response rate!



This blurb really surprised me. I would have thought contests were used long before the 1950s. I'm also intrigued by the oil well prize. I wonder how the value of a well in 1950 compares to one today.


Oh, Britney Spears, how times have changed. Advertising may endure through the ages, but celebrity fame... does not.

This story below left me at a loss for words. I'm just going to let it do the talking...



Reposted from The Body Odd blog on msnbc.com. Article written by Cari Nierenberg.

Swallowed Pen Still Works 25 Years Later

The pen is said to be mightier than the sword. But an unusual case report has shown that a pen may be mightier than stomach acid.

The case, which appeared in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, described a 76-year-old British woman sent to a GI specialist because of weight loss and diarrhea.
I promise to never again use the word 'diarrhea' on this blog.

She was diagnosed with severe diverticulosis, a condition that's common in older people in which small pouches bulge out from the colon. But when doctors did a scanning test of her belly they noticed something strange: "A linear foreign body in the stomach."

When asked about it, the woman remembered accidentally swallowing a black felt-tip pen 25 years earlier. (In case you're wondering, dentures and toothpicks are two of the most common items that adults accidentally swallow.)

According to her gastroenterologist Dr. Olive Waters, who authored the case report, she was standing on her stairs using an uncapped pen to poke a spot on her tonsils. On the STAIRS?? Of all the places she could have chosen to stand for an impromptu game of Operation on her own tonsils, she chose THE STAIRS. She was also holding a hand mirror to guide the pen to the exact spot. Somehow, while doing this, she lost her balance and stumbled. The fall managed to push the pen down her throat. It glided down her gullet and found a home in her tummy.

She told her husband and her doctor what had happened, but they were skeptical of the story. I probably would have had the same reaction. X-rays done at the time were normal and found no trace of the pen. Flash forward to the present, to a different doctor and even better stomach-scanning technology to investigate the case of the missing marker. More than two decades later a scan hit pay dirt: The pen.

Although the woman's current digestive problems had nothing to do with the marker she had unintentionally downed, the doctors decided to remove it anway. Their rationale was a case in the medical literature of a child accidentally swallowing a ballpoint pen that bore a hole in his bowel. Incredibly, the pen had stayed in her stomach for 25 years without causing any significant damage to her GI tract, Waters says.

After bathing in stomach acid for two-and-a-half decades, the pen was corroded and the plastic was flaky, but, amazingly, the pen still had usable ink and could write!

"This case highlights that plain abdominal X-rays may not identify ingested plastic objects and occasionally it may be worth believing the patient's account however unlikely it may be," the report advises doctors.

Write on!

You know, as much as I want to make fun of this poor lady, I am reminded of the time I accidentally swallowed a quarter while trying to catch it in my teeth, ala Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura. I guess I'm not one to talk!

This week at Sonic Promos, we're working on...



... screen printed T-shirts compressed in the shape of a wine cask for the Pinot Posse wine event.


... full color lapel pins for Decision Health.



... and branded umbrellas for the University of Maryland School of Engineering.

"This Week at Sonic Promos" is a regular feature on our blog.
Read all past posts here.
Check in every Tuesday to see some of the work that's going on in our office.

I will say, screen printing on a striped or patterned shirt is really not that common. BUT, if you do decide to go this route, make sure you think about how the lines of your imprint will look against the lines of the pattern.

Stripes aren't always perfectly level on a T-shirt, and an imprint with a straight edge will only highlight those inconsistencies. In the example above, the blue rectangle of the Old Bay logo is perfectly level, but it looks crooked because of the surrounding stripes. The easiest solution, of course, would just be to print on a solid color shirt. If the stripes have to stay, the next best option is to back the logo with a circular shape. This way, the misaligned stripes are less noticeable.

This week at Sonic Promos, we're working on...


... full color license plates for HD Radio to be placed on cars displayed at the CES show in January and for use in all other car-related promotions next year.


... custom journals for .co to be distributed at an event in Bogata, Columbia.



... and screen-printed tees to be worn by the Pre-kicks and Kickers of SAM (Soccer Association of Montgomery) Soccer.

"This Week at Sonic Promos" is a regular feature on our blog.
Read all past posts here.
Check in every Tuesday to see some of the work that's going on in our office.