When did inexpensive holographic stickers become available?

November 6, 2019 6:00 AM

Approximately what year did these stickers popular with children and as packaging highlights first appear?
posted by fairmettle to Grab Bag (10 answers total)

Are you talking about truly holographic images or just stuff that’s sparkly with some holographic effect? Unless I’m out of touch, truly holographic images are still rare.
posted by argybarg at 7:38 AM on November 6, 2019

I was pretty young but I think it was around the time Visa started using them on their cards. Wikipedia says that was 1984.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:39 AM on November 6, 2019 [5 favorites]

I remember them being new and cool around 1992. This Etsy listing is exactly what I'm thinking of.
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:46 AM on November 6, 2019

Spoke too soon -- this person has a bunch marked 1984 (and I had these stickers too!).
posted by fiercecupcake at 7:48 AM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

Looks like MasterCard used embossed holograms in 1982, and Hershey had an ET hologram promotion. https://www.ihma.org/history.aspx
posted by Sophont at 8:00 AM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

I was born in 1975 and collected stickers from about 1982 to 1985, mostly acquiring them at our local Hallmark shop. I remember the E.T. hologram promotion. My memory is that hologram stickers became common in about 1984. I got braces in the fall of 1984, so I was at the dentist every month, and hologram stickers were what I chose from the prize box each time. I had a fresh new sticker album around then as well, and considered the hologram stickers very special, so I gave them their own dedicated page. The subjects of the ones I selected were pretty much all unicorns and rainbows. These are definitely some of the ones I had.
posted by jocelmeow at 9:01 AM on November 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

If you need an authoritative reference for this, the MIT Museum has the world's largest collection of holograms and could, I'm sure, answer questions.
posted by jessamyn at 12:38 PM on November 6, 2019

I also think early-mid 80's. That was also the time when holographic pins became a thing. No jeans jacket or backpack was cool without at least one creepy holographic pin.
posted by zengargoyle at 12:46 PM on November 6, 2019 [2 favorites]

National Geographic's first hologram cover was in March 1984. Circulation was 10.6 million copies worldwide at the time.
posted by rikschell at 12:51 PM on November 6, 2019 [3 favorites]

Are you talking about truly holographic images or just stuff that’s sparkly with some holographic effect?

It's absolutely about the latter, which utilize diffraction and are technically called rainbow holograms to distinguish them from the real thing, which I'd guess a lot of people have never actually experienced, given the laser requirement. True holographic images are really 3D (which anyone, even those with only one eye, can see by moving around; unlike stereograms like that Magic Eye stuff from the 90s).
posted by Rash at 1:15 PM on November 6, 2019 [1 favorite]