| By :
Mark Etinger
I have an uncle who worked in a supermarket. Through the years he spent there he picked up many large format banners and elaborate store displays. He has cardboard cut-outs of Mr. T and Elvira from promotions for cereal and chips in the 80's. He has a humungous large format banner for the arrival of Crystal Clear Pepsi. It is like a museum in his attic. A museum of custom banner printing. Someday if consumer culture of the last 40 years becomes a historical bench mark I believe you will be seeing some of my uncle's collection in places like the Smithsonian Institute. Recently his interests have veered to more corporate concerns. He has seen several trade show banners as a buyer for the supermarket he has been employed at for many years and was stunned by a pull up banner's ability to be both practical and design savvy. It is a far cry from a life size Mr. T daring you to eat his Cap'n Crunch rip off cereal but not such a far cry that my uncle wasn't interested. Lately we have seen him coming home with a dozen or more retractable banner stands advertising everything from cellphone apps to golf clubs, heart medicine to energy bars. The house is full of these easy to store retractable banner stands. Which would be a reprieve to my poor aunt accept that he refuses to let go of any of his previously collected displays and large format banners. We may have a hoarder on our hands. Even still though the collection is pretty amazing and it kind of makes the work put into designing these retractable banners seem more worth while. I'm sure the guy putting together graphics for this Zoloft advertisement had no idea someone would eventually see it as a work of art. I bet they would be thrilled to know someone did though. I know the picture I paint of my retractable banner collecting uncle has made him seem weird or the even more dismissive variation on the word "quirky." But I swear he isn't. In fact he's very bright and well read. Instead he sees potential in these artifacts to appreciate in value. To some extent I believe him. People used to be dismissive about baseball cards and comic books and look what happened to those markets. The pullup banner trade could be next to be hit with the collector's buzz.
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