Martin and Malcolm Fundraising Pens

Submitted by David Wahl December 6th, 2011
Certifikitsch Winner

Inspired by Snappyp’,s Nelson Mandela post, I thought I’d post these ads for Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X fund raising pens that were sold in Ebony Magazine in the early 1970s.

The first ad is the best. Do you have a dream? Fund it with pens!

I’ve never seen one of these in real life, but I have my eyes open for them. You might recognize the company, Collingwood Fund Raising. They continued advertising greeting cards and anti-drug pens into the early 1980s.

3 Responses to “Martin and Malcolm Fundraising Pens”

  1. Allee Willis

    Ah ha! One-stop shopping here at AWMOK as I OWN the MLK pen! I’ve never seen the Malcolm X one before so I’m completely dying for that one but the MLK pen is in my hand as we speak. I’ve been wanting to post it in my Kitsch O’ The Day blog but it’s so hard to photograph, especially with as tarnished as MLK’s face is. But just for you, as you have been such an exemplary aKitschonado, I will post it very very soon!

    I also have a vast collection of Ebony magazines and have this actual ad as well. Would have to start looking through hundreds of magazines to find so I’m just going to lift your photos to use in my post. So thank you in advance for that!

    I have a lot of cheesy MLK stuff.

  2. David Wahl

    I should have known you’d have MLK, can’t wait to see it. I imagine you use it to write very inspiring things!

    I cheat with the Ebony, it’s available on Google Books. My house is so much tidier after they put all that online.

    Hold off til MLK day for the post and do a collection of stuff! I will so link to it.