During Lent, Dairymens Whipped Cream (yum) Cottage Cheese came in special cartons. As shown in the ad, the carton – when empty – could be converted into a mini-easter basket with the addition of a cardboard or pipe cleaner handle. There were six "gayly colored baskets" to collect.
It's a cute idea. Nowadays, though, I'm sure companies would avoid this kind of marketing gimmick, being too afraid to offend someone.
As you can see from the ad, pineapple was the upcoming 'special flavor' of cottage cheese. (By the way, I almost never eat plain cottage cheese. I prep it first by throwing some grape jelly into it, making a sort of "poor man's yogurt" out of it. I learned that culinary trick from one of my Ohio State roomies.)
I had forgotten all about pipe cleaners, though. I wonder if they were ever used to clean pipes?
Anyway, the ad ran in the Lorain Journal on March 10, 1955 – 60 years ago this month.
Its a shame you may offend someone today w/ a cardboard carton.
ReplyDeleteI guess I was surprised that the basket gimmick was described as a Lenten promotion. I can't recall any recent ads that actually mention Lent (although there's been a lot of fish sandwich commercials for the past many weeks).
ReplyDeletehttp://shopjustvintage.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/cottagecheeseeasterbaskets2.jpg
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing that link--it's amazing that any of that type of container survived. I'll bet that the containers were something that any dairy could order from their supplier, and that the dairy provided the lid with their name, etc. on it.
ReplyDeleteIt turns out that a lot of people saved those decorative containers and have posted photos of them online! I'll be doing a follow-up post as it gets closer to Easter!
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