PPAI’s Promotional Products Pioneers are individuals or companies whose business acumen, technological skills, creativity, innovative methods and inventions played a role in the industry’s product development, business achievement and advancement. At The PPAI Expo 2024 this month, the Association is naming Henry Bunting, A. Phillip Carney and Arthur Fry as its 2024 Pioneers.

The industry’s evolution, growth and progression are owed to men and women like the ones the Association recognizes through its Promotional Products Pioneers honor. They have distinguished themselves in the industry through their vision, drive, character and leadership.

The 2023 Promotional Products Pioneers honorees include:

Henry Bunting
The Novelty News

  • Publisher of The Novelty News, one of the first and oldest publications serving the promotional products industry.
  • Honorary member of the National Association of Advertising Novelty Manufacturers (NAANM), a precursor to PPAI.
  • The author of Specialty Advertising – The New Way To Build Business, which defined specialty advertising and its use as an advertising medium.

Bunting played an instrumental role in furthering communication within the promotional products industry and for the association. In 1906, the NAANM board accepted Bunting’s offer to make The Novelty News its official publication and authorized him to attend the association’s meetings. Press was previously barred from these meetings, but the NAANM board felt his presence would provide valuable publicity for manufacturers.

Bunting also provided secretarial help. NAANM members seeking to correspond with its board did so care of an employee of The Novelty News.

A. Phillip Carney, MAS
QuickPoint

  • A member of the PPAI Board of Directors from 2000 – 2002.
  • Named a PPAI Fellow in 2016.
  • Recognized for his innovative use of spec samples in sales.

Carney’s sales acumen is well remembered. Contemporaries of the former vice president of sales for Fenton, Missouri-based supplier Quickpoint, considered him the king of sales presentations and an originator in the use of spec samples in the sales process. He showed that a pair of travel scissors and a company’s publication for its logo, coupled with a quick pop into a Quickpoint keyring, could open anyone’s eyes to the value of promo.

Carney also readily shared his understanding of the effective use of spec samples in sales with his industry colleagues. It’s been said that people walked away from his presentations fired up and ready to sell.

Arthur Fry
3M

  • The co-creator of the Post-It Note.

In 1968, a scientist at 3M, Spencer Silver, developed a low-tack adhesive but had difficulty finding applications for it. His colleague, Fry, a new product development researcher at 3M, learned about it during one of Silver’s seminars. As the legend goes, Fry sang in his church choir on nights and used slips of paper to mark the pages of his workbook. When the book was opened, however, the makeshift bookmarks often moved around or fell out altogether. On a Sunday in 1973, it occurred to him that Silver’s adhesive could be used to create a better bookmark. If it could be coated on paper, Silver’s adhesive would hold a bookmark in place without damaging the page on which it was placed.

Fry requested a sample of the adhesive. 3M’s “permitted bootlegging” policy allowed employees to spend some of their time on projects of their own to develop new ideas, and Fry began experimenting. He coated only one edge of the paper so that the portion extending from a book would not be sticky. Fry used some of his experiments to write notes to his boss, which led him to broaden his original idea into the concept that became the Post-it Note. The innovative product was introduced into the promo industry in 1983.