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Sunday, May 6, 2012

More Oldies But Goodies

IMG_9415In an earlier post a few weeks ago, I posted about advertisements displayed in a gift recipe book, The Farmer’s Wife Slow Cooker Cookbook.
 
The previous post showed some early (and interesting) appliance ads.  Here’s some of the ads for food products . . .
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The Royal Baking Powder Company was one of the largest producers of baking powder in the US. It was started by brothers Joseph and Cornelius Hoagland in 1866 in Ft. Wayne, Ind.

Joseph Hoagland, a grocer, noticed that the baking powder he wasroyal BP making did not bring in much revenue. He suffered from competition, because baking powder was easy and cheap to make. Hoagland decided to name his powder the Royal Baking Powder, and to sink a huge sum into an advertising campaign. Soon, Hoagland was spending half a million dollars a year on advertising, an enormous amount at the time, but customers came to have a boundless trust in Royal Baking Powder. They were willing to pay several times the price of exactly the same thing from another producer. The company eventually moved to New York in the 1890s and became the largest manufacturer of baking powder.
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occident adOccident Flour was produced by the Russell-Miller Milling Company from the mid 1890s to the early 1950s. The Russell-Miller Milling Company had facilities throughout the Upper Midwest, with the main office in Minneapolis. In the early 1950s, F.H. Peavey Company purchased the company. The combined company was renamed the Peavey Company in 1962 and that company was acquired by ConAgra in 1982.

Sun-Maid has served consumers and customers since 1912 by sun maidproviding premium quality raisins and dried fruits from the raisin and fruit farms of California to homes and eating establishments. Sun-Maid Growers of California, is a cooperative headquartered in Kingsburg, CA, and owned by family farmers who grow raisin grapes all located within 100 miles of each other in the Great Central Valley of California, midway between Los Angeles to the south and San Francisco to the north. It is the largest worldwide raisin and dried fruit processor.
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Morton's roots were established in Chicago in 1848 when Alonzo Richmond arrived in Chicago from Syracuse, New York to proclaim his new business: Richmond & Company, Agents for Onondaga Salt. Chicago's population then was just 20,000 but it was quickly becoming a transportation hub due to its access to the Great Lakes and to the expanding settlements along the extensive Mississippi River system.
In 1879, eight years after the Great Chicago Fire, Joy Morton bought IMG_9413an interest in the company. In 1886, he increased his share to acquire a majority interest in the company, renaming it Joy Morton & Company.

The firm was incorporated as the Morton Salt Company in 1910. By then, it was both a manufacturer and a merchant of salt. Among its products were a free-flowing salt in a round package with a patented spout for consumer households, and various bulk salt grades for farm and industry. In 1914, the now famous Morton Salt Umbrella Girl and slogan, When It Rains It Pours® first appeared on the blue package of table salt and in a series of Good Housekeeping magazine advertisements. It was adapted from an old saying, “It never rains but it pours.”
A 1940s era ad . . .IMG_9412
Heinz 57 is a shortened form of a historical advertising slogan used by the H.J. Heinz Company of Pittsburgh, PAs. The expression, derives from Heinz's "57 Varieties" and has come to mean anything  comprised or mixed from a lot of parts or origins. It developed from a marketing campaign to tell consumers about the numerous products available from the Heinz company.IMG_9417Henry J. Heinz introduced the marketing slogan “57 Varieties” in 1896. He claimed that he was inspired by an advertisement he saw while riding an elevated train in New York City (a shoe store boasting “21 styles”). The reason for”57” is unclear. Heinz said he chose “5” because it was his lucky number and the number”7” was his wife's lucky number. However Heinz also said the number "7" was selected specifically because of the “psychological influence of that figure and of its enduring significance to people of all ages.” Heinz wanted the company to advertise the greatest number of choices of canned and bottled foods for sale. In 1892, four years before the slogan was created, the Heinz company was already selling more than 60 products. Today, Heinz offers more than 5,700 quality products, yet is still known for its “57 Varieties.”heinzlist
Heinz miscellanea . . .
  • Only 8 to 10 people worldwide know the exact recipe for Heinz Ketchup. Heinz has one basic recipe, but there are differences depending on which country it is made in:  users in Canada, Britain, Australia and Venezuela like their ketchup a bit sweeter than those in the U.S. and mainland Europe, who like their ketchup a bit spicier.
  • Heinz buys more tomatoes than any other company in the world – over  2 million TONS a year.
  • To pour ketchup more quickly from the bottle, the folks at Heinz say that the best spot to tap on the Heinz bottle is the “57” on the neck. Just apply a firm tap where the bottle narrows, and the ketchup will pour more easily. BUT,The New York Times claims this is a matter of intentional design, with Heinz having placed the”57” mark on that particular spot of the bottle as a target for consumers to hit.
  • When Pittsburgh-based Heinz purchased the naming rights of Heinz Field in 2001, they signed a deal to pay the Pittsburgh Steelers $57 million until 2021.
  • The Heinz 57 is also a nickname for British Rail Class 57 locomotives.

13 comments:

Lois Evensen said...

Fascinating read. :) We call ketchup "American Sauce" here since that's what the waiters in the Far East called it many years ago.

Montanagirl said...

Interesting! Always learn something visiting your blog.

MadSnapper said...

i remember a few of these, not all. so tap the 57, hummm

Out on the prairie said...

A dillema solved getting the ketsup to flow.Nice stories to share.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Lois, thanks for the info.
Sandra, learned something new too!
Thanks Steve had fun getting info.

Connie said...

Fun and interesting post, Beatrice. Those old ads make me laugh sometimes.

possum said...

Oh, those were way before MY time!
Very interesting!

Elaine said...

Ah, the secret to marital success is Morton's Salt. That's what's sitting in my cupboard, so I guess it must work!

Scott Law said...

What a wonderful trip back in time and I learned so much. Thanks.

Anonymous said...

I love these old adds and to learn more about them! I never buy any other raisins than Sun-Maid :-) But it was just recently I learned that there are yellow raisins as well :-) :-) and is there anybody in this world that doesn't know Heinz and their oven baked beans? Never buy any other brand of that either :-)

Have a great day!
Christer.

jp@A Green Ridge said...

We've been tapping that "57" for a good long while now!...:)JP

Doris said...

Super interesting! We always used Morton's salt when I was a kid (I usually have sea salt) and Heinz 57. I didn't know about tapping the 57!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Daisy, the ads were more fun than reading recipes.

Possum, mine too!

Scott, this learning was interesting too.

Christer, Sun Maid raisins are my first choice too, and the golden raisins too which seem a bit sweeter. Heinz beans are much better than Campbells!

JP & Doris, first time I heard about tapping the "57." Morton's salt is always a favorite here too and sea salt too.