Fisher Food Ads – April 1964

Sixty years ago this month, the 1964 New York World's Fair opened. (You can read about it and see some great photos here on the NYC Parks website).

Naturally, the Fair provided opportunities for promotional tie-ins with businesses. You can see one above in an ad for Fisher Foods that ran in the Lorain Journal on April 1, 1964, that was a joint effort by the grocery store chain and the Cleveland Zoo.

As the ad copy notes, "Each year, along with the lions, tigers, the elephants, monkeys and the reptiles, the Cleveland Zoo is stocked with several species of the more common domestic animals which are equally interesting to children, among the, pigs, lambs and calves which are corralled in the zoo's Red Barn Yard. It's a famous stop on the miniature railroad at the zoo.

"We at Fisher Foods take pride in presenting these animals to the Zoo this year for the pleasure of you, yours and thousands of children who will be zoo visitors."

(Let's hope the animals that were donated weren't shrink-wrapped cuts and chops suitable for roasting.)

So what was the contest? Kids could win a trip for 4 to the New York World's Fair just for naming 3 pigs or 3 lambs at the Cleveland Zoo's Red Barn Yard and writing one sentence explaining "Why I want to visit the Cleveland Zoo this summer." There were 10 prizes in all: 2 for the World's Fair and 8 Second Prizes consisting of a day at Cedar Point.

The fine print of the contest rules stipulate to "be sure to give appropriate names to males and females." It's kind of sneaky that there's a female piggy in the middle of the porcine trio. I'm not sure if my entry – "Hammy, Spammy and Sammy" – would work.

Likewise, just to throw the kids off, there's a boy lamb centrally placed in the woolly threesome. 

Feel free to suggest names for the Mutton Trio in the comment section. (Sorry, no Greyhound Bus trip to New Yawk for the winner this time.)

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Fisher Foods also mentioned the contest a week later in its April 8, 1964 ad. But good old Chief Wahoo and the Cleveland Indians ticket promotion dominates this time.

That's a nice rendering of the Indians' beloved mascot.

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I combed through the Journal's online archives but was unable to locate the names of the New York World's Fair contest winners or their monikers for the two meaty trios. Sorry!