| Badges – also known as pins or buttons – were aimed at children in connection with product marketing and all appear to have been issued during the post war years. The earliest Lyons example is thought to be the badge issued with the powdered drink known as Lyonzade in 1955 with the slogan: ‘I am a Quencher’. Lyons Tea introduced a badge to support the sales of Quick Brew Tea in 1967. When the famous Zoom ice lolly was launched in 1963 a badge was issued with the title: Zoom Agent. The agent in this case was the retail shop (Lyons called these agents) and so this was a play on words. Later a more colourful badge was issued with Zoom when it was re-launched. The Ice Cream Division (Lyons Maid) issued a number of badges to support, or improve, sales of a number of children’s ice cream brands in conjunction with trade cards which were also used for this purpose. Some were issued to support road safety campaigns linked to products. In April 1973 Lyons Maid launched a new range of children’s hand-held ice creams. These were know as Cola Smash (2p), Red Devil (3p), Captain Cody (3p), Jelly Terror (4p), Freckles (4p) and Freak Out (5p). These complemented the lines which had been introduced in previous years which included Totem Pole (1½p), Orange Smash (2p), Coola Bar (2p), Jungle Jim (3p), Zoom (4p), Fab (4p), Score (4p) and Chico (5p) the highest selling 5p line in 1972 beating the sales plan by 50 per cent. With these lines badges were made available to the retail trade. Dealers ordering one unit of each of the new in-hand lines (Red Devil, Captain Cody, Jelly Terror, Freckles and Freak Out) received 50 assorted badges. The 11 Galaxy Patrol badges were issued with the Space Age Britain trade cards in 1968. Coco the Clown, featuring Nikoli Polakov, was used by Lyons Tea for a Road Safety campaign in 1963 and his image featured on the badge. In 1969 the Peace Orbiton badges were issued with Lyons Maid’s Orbit ice lolly featuring Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons. A Joe 90 badge was issued 1967 and featured on the Zoom wrappers. Badges were a great attraction to children and this was exploited by the marketing managers. Mister Softee, Neilson and Lyons Tea/Coffee all issued their own badges. The Wimpy hamburger shops issued a large variety of badges showing their international links and their interest in sports. The image on the Mister Softee badges was known as Cone Head.
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