Thursday, July 16, 2009

Zoo Key Sponsors

Many zoo keys were issued and continue to be issued in sponsorship with banks and other companies, including Wells Fargo Bank, KeyBank, CoreStates and Comcast/Metrophone just to name a few. This purple monkey key with a scoop-shaped shank was issued by KeyBank in the time period between 1976-1997 for the Metro Washington Park Zoo in Portland, Oregon. Click the image to see details.

Sponsorship helps ease the cost of advertising in support of interactive education for zoos and enables the sponsor to break through advertising clutter, targeting a select market of zoo patrons.

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Zoo Keys

Novelty plastic keys used in Talking Storybooks at zoos, parks and other exhibits. Children's entertainer and puppeteer Bruce "Skipper" Sedley invented the original tape-recorded-playback Talking Storybooks with their novelty keys in the early 1950s.

In 1958, Talking Storybooks operated by the Magic Key to Fairyland were installed at Children's Fairyland in Oakland's Lake Merritt Park. The familiar elephant-shaped key – Trunkey the Elephant – was created the following year for the San Francisco Zoo, and has been used at zoos & parks across America since the 1960s.