3M Sticks With Post-it After 30 Years

You might call it a lesson in stick-to-itiveness. The 3M Post-it Note brand is turning 30 this year, but it wouldn't even be a product if not for the company's resilience. Find out how the brand is celebrating after the jump.

Post-it's creation is something of a legend at 3M. It was 1967 and a scientist at the company invented an adhesive substance that stuck but prevented permanent adhesion. 3M couldn't quite figure out what to do with it.

After lots of tests and a few failed products, another 3M scientist turned the glue into backing for notepaper. The company test marketed the product and finally decided to introduce it in 1980. The 3M Post-it note became a breakthrough product that quickly found its way into offices everywhere.

Thirty years later, 3M sells 1,000 different Post-it products in 150 countries. Now, 3M wants to make sure consumers know it's not just for offices anymore.

In a new ad campaign launching Monday (in time for back-to-school shopping), 3M will feature "Super Stick Notes by Post-it" in humorous household applications.

In one spot (above), a Jack Russell terrier spots a bone drawn on one of the notes, displayed beyond his reach on the kitchen wall. He jumps to get the bone, snags the note, and ends up hanging on to it. Yep, the note doesn't come off the wall.

In addition to the ads, 3M will place a billboard in New York's Grand Central terminal made up of more than 100,000 Post-it Notes, the result of a collage poster contest. Actress Angela Kinsey, who appears in NBC's TV show The Office, will be on hand to unveil the billboard.

William Smith, vice president for 3M's office supply division, tells the New York Times, "The product has found its way into homes through the office channel, and this billboard component gets young people involved and gets to the educational arena and to a whole generation of users coming up."

Super Sticky Notes by Post-it is a variation of the Post-it product that was introduced in 2003. 3M sees them as useful in the household since they can stay attached to different surfaces, such as doors, walls, and computers.

3M continuously researches how Post-it products might be used in the office and home and introduces new variations as the need arises. The company brought recycled pads to market this year and introduced Post-it labels last year.

3M's Smith says, "[Post-it is] still tilted to the office channel and still primarily an office product, but it has migrated out of the office and into many aspects of our life."

No doubt 3M is happy they stuck with it. Here's another spot in the new campaign: