Plastic bag with promotional strip

Abstract

Gusseted plastic bags and methods of making the same in either rolls or stack packs, each bag having at least one plastic promotional strip extending along a side edge of the bag and secured adjacent to top and bottom edges. The promotional strip may be disposed either between the folded bag edges forming the gusset or outside of the gusset, and may or may not be perforated.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTIONThis invention relates to the field of plastic bags of the type employed by retailers in packing food items and other merchandise, with particular application to T-shirt type merchandise bags.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONAnnual usage of plastic bags by U.S. retailers is estimated to exceed 50 billion units. A certain percentage of these bags may be ordinary rectangular bags having various features, but a large percentage of the bags so used are what is known as T-shirt type merchandise bags (bags which have handles projecting upwardly on each side from the mouth of the bag).Efforts have been made almost from the introduction of plastic bags to provide some type of advertising, discount or coupon strips on T-shirt or other plastic bags.In some instances, these efforts have taken the form of adhesively applied labels or strips as may be seen from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,363,966 and 5,298,104.In other cases, the strips have been overlaid on the bag film or applied transver...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

In the practice of the present invention, the advertising and / or coupon strip can be, but does not have to be, either of the same material, or be subject to the same film color or print limitations as are the bags to which the strip is attached. It is only necessary that the message strip be of a material which is compatible with the process by which the bags are sealed. Thus, the strips attached to polyethylene bags may be made from, but not limited to, low-density polyethylene, linear-low-density polyethylene or high-density polyethylene. Where the strip is made of a different color material or with a different print design or ink colors from the bags, the strip will provide a more-effective visual impact for promotional messages.

When the printed strip provides images of a highly visible, highly noticeable quality, consumers will be more likely to notice the message strip, increasing the probability that they will pull off and retain the strip or coupons, where they may otherwise simply discard the bags. Further, because the strips are only secured to the bags at the ends of each strip, the messages or coupons are easily detached by a relatively light hand pull. Message and / or coupon removal can be facilitated by placing perforations between each message and / or coupon in the printed film strip. This makes the advertising messages and / or coupons even easier to remove from the strip, whether it is affixed inside or outside the bag gussets.

The present invention, therefore, offers many advantages over prior art expedients from an advertising and promotional standpoint for the plastic bag industry and for the advertisers and retailers.

Problems solved by technology

Further, because the strips are only secured to the bags at the ends of each strip, the messages or coupons are easily detached by a relatively light hand pull.

Images