Have you hugged your kid today?

Posted by ESC on April 04, 2007

I don't know if this slogan went beyond Kentucky borders. But in case it did, and you wondered about its origins, here you go:

'Hugged your kid's' Jack C. Lewis dies
Idea came from bumper sticker

By Paula Burba
pburba@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal

Jack C. Lewis, who was responsible for popularizing the 1970s "Have You Hugged Your Kid Today?" slogan, died Sunday at Baptist Hospital East in Louisville.

Lewis, who lived in Frankfort, Ky., was 72.

He said he got the idea for the bumper sticker after seeing something similar while on vacation in South Carolina.

While commissioner of the Kentucky Bureau for Social Services -- the agency overseeing foster care, adoptions and juvenile delinquency -- Lewis had 10,000 red-and-white bumper stickers with the saying printed, with "Kentucky Department for Human Resources" in unobtrusive type below the "Have You Hugged Your Kid Today" slogan in bold red ink. That was in the spring of 1976.

Less than six months later, people were reported fighting over the stickers at the state fair, where the agency, which normally did not advertise, had to set a limit of one sticker per family...