the POST-IT
Post- it Notes are indesputably one of humanity’s greatest inventions. More than just a note pad, you can stick these babies anywhere – on your computer screen; on your locker; inside a textbook. Their versatility is seemingly limitless. Other uses include handy lipstick blotter, keyboard cleaner and colourful makeshift coaster.
Strangely enough, no one ever really meant to invent the Post- it. And, no, Romy & Michelle aren’t responsible.
In 1968, Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist at 3M, invented a weak adhesive when he actually meant to create a super strong one.
The result was a low- tack bonding agent that could stick to things but also be easily repositioned – an accidental invention that no one at 3M could figure out what to do with for over five years.
In 1975, his colleague Art Fry became frustrated when he kept losing his page place in the hymnal while singing in church. He tried some of Dr. Silver’s adhesive on his bookmarks, and the rest is history.
3M finally launched a sticky notes product called “Press ’n Peel” in 1977, however they didn’t become hugely successful until 1980 when they were rebranded as Post-it Notes. Now, they rake in approximately $ 1 billion per year for the company.
More than just a winning office accessory, Post- its are one of the best prank accessories of all time. From simply sticking a “kick me” sign on your best friend’s back to covering your mates’ cars ( as Patrick Patterson did to three Raptors teammates this April Fools’ Day) in the yellow notes, they can provide hours of entertainment for the prankster and fury for the prankee.
In The Office’s U. S. pilot episode, branch manager Michael Scott couldn’t resist pranking Pam by pretending to fire her for Post- it Note theft … a joke that didn’t land so well. Of course, the pop cultural legacy of Post- its isn’t all fun and games. Countless women will never quite get over the moment Carrie Bradshaw was infamously broken up with via sticky note: “I’m sorry. I can’t. Don’t hate me.”
Post- its are also one of the few legacy products that Millennials haven’t killed off, and 3M is determined Generation Z won’t either. The company has a strategy to keep its notes relevant to young smartphoneaddicted students.
It has an app collaboration with Evernote where users can directly upload photos of their physical Post- its to the app, which then extracts handwriting for the notes, tags them and even files them into digital notebooks. Their marketing no longer centres around stickiness, but rather sentimentality.
Against all odds, their tactics might just be working. According to The National Society of High School Scholars, 3M ousted Google as the number one job target for American high school students in 2016. The struggling print publishing industry might want to take “note.”