Draft:ADVO-STRIP

ADVO-STRIP: One sheet hand made advertisement for bulletin boards which has pre-cut tear off strips which contain the Name and Contact phone number for a service or product.

The ADVO-STRIP was invented by Lawrence R. Davis in October 1971. At that time he was attending the University of Minnesota and was in a band called "The Spice. " He and band member Jeff Rutman put up a typical flyer on a bulletin board in the basement of the Chemistry building on the University of Minnesota campus. They received no call and returned to the bulletin board to see if the flyer was still there. Yes, it was still there. Lawrence said to Jeff that maybe people saw the flyer but didn't write down the number and couldn't remember it. At that point Lawrence took down the flyer, tore the bottom into 8 separate strips and on each strip wrote THE SPICE and the phone number. The band received a couple calls that week! Lawrence and Jeff returned to the bulletin board and saw that several of the strips had been taken. PLUS...there were 2 other flyers on that bulletin board using the ADVO-STRIP concept! By the end of that school year bulletin boards all over the campus were utilizing the ADVO-STRIP concept. Since then this has been used on bulletin boards world wide and continues to be a valuable and free way to advertise!