The Bic Pen was first launched in December 1950 and is by far the best- selling pen in the world – the 100 billionth was sold in September 2006. It has become the archetypal ballpoint pen and is considered ubiquitous, to the extent that the Museum of Modern Art has made it a permanent part of its collection. Its hexagonal form and design mimics a classic lead pencil; it is sold in a variety of colours.

In 1944, near the end of the Second World War, entrepreneur Marcel Bich bought a factory in Clichy, a suburb north of Paris, and with business partner Edouard Buffard founded Société PPA (later Société Bic) in 1945. "PPA" stood for Porte-plume, Porte-mines et Accessoires– pens, mechanical pencils and accessories. During the war Bich had seen a ballpoint pen manufactured in Argentina by László Biro. Between 1949 and 1950 the Bic Cristal was designed by the Décolletage Plastique design team at Société PPA. Bich invested in Swiss technology capable of shaping metal down to 0.01 millimetres (0.00039 in), which could produce a stainless steel one-millimetre (0.039 in) sphere which allowed ink to flow freely. Bich developed a viscosity of ink which neither leaked nor clogged and, under a licence purchased from Biro for the ballpoint, launched the Cristal in December 1950.

Bich invested heavily in advertising, hiring poster designer Raymond Savignac in 1952. That year Bic won the French Oscar de la publicité award for advertising. In 1953 advertising executive Pierre Guichenné advised Bich to shorten his family name to Bic as an easy-to-remember, globally adaptable tradename for the pen, which fit in with product branding trends of the post-war era. Early Bic advertisements in France referred to the Cristal as the "Atomic pen". Throughout the 1950s and 1960s the Bic Cristal's writing tip and ergonomic design helped shift the worldwide market for pens from fountain pens to ballpoints.

In 1959 Bich brought the pen to the American market: the Bic pen was soon selling at 29 cents (equivalent to $2.38 in 2016) with the slogan "writes first time, every time." In 1965 the French ministry of education approved the Bic Cristal for use in classrooms.

In September 2006 the Bic Cristal was declared the best-selling pen in the world after the 100 billionth was sold. (Source: Wikipedia/Bic)

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