Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Noodles Ad – Nov. 3, 1965

For many years, the Lorain Journal used to run a lot of national and regional ads, which were likely part of a carefully planned marketing strategy by the respective companies. These ads were a nice source of advertising income that the Morning Journal and all other surviving newspapers no doubt sorely miss today. The practice seemed to taper off in the 1980s and end completely with the rise of the internet.

I've featured a lot of these ads on the blog over the years and here's one for Pennsylvania Dutch Egg Noodles. The ad copy is written in a manner that would be grammatically correct in Pennsylvania Dutch, but seems curious to us. (An Old Dutch Beer campaign used the same gimmick.) 

It's interesting that by having an actual person represent the company (Pennsylvania Dutch-Megs Inc.), it seems to mimic the "Quaker Oats" man (who is based on William Penn). He's even clean shaven like the man on the Quaker Oats package.

But it seems kind of off to me.  When I think 'Pennsylvania Dutch,' I think of those old-time stick candy displays with the advertising mascot consisting of a man with a beard. One of those displays is for sale on the internet right now.

The same candy company (Pennsylvania Dutch Co. Inc. of Mount Holly Springs, PA) also sold their candy in various package designs, sometimes with a slightly different version of the bearded mascot.

For many years, I thought the 'Dutch' in Pennsylvania Dutch meant Dutch people (as in windmills and wooden shoes). Eventually I learned that Pennsylvania Dutch are largely German emigrants who arrived in the U. S beginning around the late 1600s. 

But what about the Amish? 

This website explains it nicely. Summing it up: the Amish are considered Pennsylvania Dutch, but not all Pennsylvania Dutch are Amish.

Speaking of the Amish, I made my first trip down to Amish Country in a long time just a few weeks ago on a beautiful Fall day. Dinner, of course, was at Der Dutchman in Walnut Creek – a Brady tradition since the 1970s. (By the way, Der Dutchman celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2019, having opened in 1969. You can read a nice article about it here.)