By Darryl and Roxana Matter
Advertising plays a very important role in our society, influencing and informing consumers about products and services available to them. Companies constantly use many forms of advertising media—newspaper, radio, television, direct mail, billboard, and more—to bring their messages to the public. It is not surprising, therefore, that the jigsaw puzzle, that popular form of home entertainment, has also featured commercial products and advertising.
John Spilsbury, an English printer, is generally credited with having produced the first modern type jigsaw puzzle in the 1760s. (Actually, the ancient Egyptians appear to have enjoyed games similar to jigsaw puzzles, so noone really knows how old the concept is!) Until the early 20th century, though, most jigsaw puzzles were relatively expensive because of the hand labor involved in their construction. At that time, the development of the die-press made it possible for inexpensive jigsaw puzzles to be produced. As explained in the January 18, 1933 issue of Business Week “Last spring the die-cut ‘jig-saw type’ puzzle appeared. These were stamped out at high speed and could be sold for a fraction of what the original wood products cost.”
The “jig-saw insanity,” as it was called in the March 11, 1933 issue of the Literary Digest, developed in the early 1930s when the Great Depression created an increasing demand for inexpensive home entertainment. Consequently, manufacturers of jigsaw puzzles stepped up production. The March 11, 1933 issue of the LIterary Digest reported that about 2,500,000 puzzles were being sold each week at that time and demand for puzzles was increasing. Because of the popularity of such puzzles in the 1930s, clubs were formed to enable jigsaw puzzle enthusiasts to trade once-asembled puzzles among themselves. Furthermore, puzzle rental services were developed to help satisfy the puzzle demand.
Advertising messages and commercial products had occasionally appeared on jigsaw puzzles before the 1930s. During the 1930s, there was an upsurge of interest in such puzzles. As described in the January 18, 1933 issue of Business Week, with the advent of the inexpensive die cut puzzles, “advertisers leaped at the idea of handing out a device over which persons would labor for days to complete a picture that directly or indirectly carried a selling point for branded goods.”
Throughout the Great Depression and the war years of the 1940s, jigsaw puzzles continued to be extremely popular forms of home entertainment. Many people even enjoyed making their own. In fact, the February 1943 issue of the Etude Music Magazine carried an article by Gladys M. Stein in which she described how she made jigsaw puzzles and sent them to her students who were ill. “The idea proved successful from the beginning,” Stein noted.
Advertisers continued to take notice of the public’s continuing interest in jigsaw puzzles. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, many jigsaw puzzles featuring commercial products were given away as premiums or distributed by salesmen as an inducement to buy a particular product. Although not as popular today, the use of jigsaw puzzles to advertise continues.
Collectors today find jigsaw puzzles of interest, and puzzles that advertise or feature commercial products have a special appeal to many.
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