Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Tangible Media: Removable Storage of Image, Sound, Motion and Data
Coating
Universal Product Code (UPC)

Title:

Mad No. 191

Date:

1978

Material:

Ink on paper

Company:

DC Comics (Warner Communications, Inc.)

The UPC barcode was invented by George Laurer at IBM in the early 1970s. It was announced in 1973 and first used commercially in 1974 to purchase a 10 Pak of Wrigley's gum at a supermarket. The UPC could be scanned by laser, speeding up checkout and improving accuracy, as well as automating inventory tracking. It is still in use today.

Like punch cards, the UPC barcode was a computer medium that lived in the everyday world. Mad magazine took advantage of this familiarity with its April 1978 issue.

Barcodes for magazines often have an extra 2 digit code (called the periodical code) on the right that identifies the issue (04 in this case for “April”)
The first commercial use of a UPC barcode was for a 10 pak of Wrigley's Gum in the checkout line for the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio
The Smithsonian Institution, from Clyce L. Dawson