Sunday, April 19, 2015

Sunday Reading

A travel-sized edition today.

Nina Totenbag — Adrienne LaFrance in The Atlantic on how the NPR totebag became a thing.

NPR Totebag 04-19-15Tote bags are so synonymous with public broadcasting in the United States that they’re as much a physical manifestation of NPR as a radio. The humble tote bag is, and has been for much of the network’s 44-year existence, a powerful brand extension.

In the beginning, tote bags were a simple fundraising incentive—a “thank you” gift for donors who helped support the network. Tote bags have been around since at least the late 1800s, but L.L. Bean is widely credited for having popularized the bag. It was originally designed “to haul ice from the car to the ice chest,” in the 1940s, according to advertising material. Tote bags have since become a cultural phenomenon, so much so that the canvas bag’s association with NPR is an indelible part of the object itself.

“The tote bag is similar to the dawn of man, [like] figuring out fire for public radio,” said Barbara Sopato, the director of consumer products for NPR. They were popular from the start because “people just liked tote bags” in the early 1970s when public radio began, Sopato told me, but also because NPR had stumbled upon the quintessential object to represent both its brand and its audience. “It was an easy give away, affordable and useful,” she said. “That’s what fits in with public radio. It’s very affordable, very useful. We’re grassroots people.”

From the perspective of stations trying to raise money for operations, the appeal is clear. Each give-away tote bag costs a station about $5, according to one estimate, but donors often give at least $60 in exchange for one. (At the network level, NPR has switched to only U.S.-manufactured canvas totes, which drives up the cost.) Yet when Sopato opened NPR’s shop 15 years ago, she decided not to sell tote bags. That was a mistake. “I thought no one will buy a tote bag because everybody’s been given them,” she said. “Same thing with the mug. I was completely wrong. Mugs and tote bags are our best sellers.”

NPR sold about 2,000 tote bags last year. That’s in addition to the countless tote bags that member stations—NPR affiliates like WNYC, WBUR, Hawaii Public Radio, etc.—offered as part of local pledge drives. “I haven’t killed the tote-bag giveaway market,” Sopato said. “We’ve raised all boats by filling the world with more tote bags.”

It’s not just public radio.  I got an Inge Festival totebag and another in a long series of coffee mugs when I arrived in Independence.  And it’s gone international.  Several years ago I wrote a fan letter to Studio Sparks, a now-cancelled classical music program on the CBC Radio 2.  They sent me a totebag, which now graces the wayback of the Pontiac.

Doonesbury  — Russian dressing.

Happy birthday, Bob.

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