Adventures in vintage advertising: Green Giant Vegetables

Perhaps I was the odd child out, for there was nary a vegetable that I wasn’t a fan of while growing up. While my young relatives and peers found creative ways to mask carrots in crumpled napkins, slip beets to the dog, or feign being too full to possibly consume another bite of squash, I was tucking to my plate of broccoli with almost as much excitement as had it been chocolate cake.

While few things match the culinary experience of freshly harvested veggies, the advent of modern food preservation methods over the past two centuries has helped to ensure that good quality, nutrient rich vegetables are available all year long.

One of the best known and most widely available brands of canned and frozen vegetables is Green Giant, who are perhaps as famous for their hulking verdant mascot the Jolly Green Giant, as they are for the vast assortment of vegetables they package and sell to consumers the world over.

Whenever I buy an item from a brand I know has existed for numerous decades, I find myself joyful over the thought that I’m purchasing something that my grandparents and perhaps even great-grandparents also stocked their home with. I love this sense of a living connection to the past through items that are available to the modern shopper. When picking up a tin of Green Giant sweet peas, I can easily image some distant, beautifully dressed relative from the 1940s doing exactly the same thing on her weekly grocery shopping trip. Such thoughts are entirely nostalgic, I know, but I am of the nostalgic ilk after all.

Green Giant is currently owned by food conglomerate General Mills, but when this brand started out in 1903 it was known as the “Minnesota Valley Canning Company” and specialized in sweet corn. During the 1920s the name Green Giant was introduced to help promote green peas, and by the 50s the brand as a whole had taken on this moniker.

Instantly recognizable as one of North America’s most well known advertising mascots, the Jolly Green Giant appeared on the scene in 1928 (he was named after a variety of large peas called Green Giant). In 1953 this friendly, emerald hued fellow (who, while not the most talkative chap around, is famed for his cheerful “Ho, ho, ho” slogan) made his TV commercial debut and has since stared in a bushel of commercials over the decades, not to mention cardboard standees and vinyl banners in grocery stores, as well as remaining a staple in Green Giant print ads.

In the 1970s the JGG was given a sidekick in the form of a smaller, younger – and rather adorable – green giant named Sprout.

Today Green Giant produces a wide range of vegetable (and fruit) products, from classic canned veggies to frozen side dishes such as mixed vegetable medleys and “steam in the bag” varieties like broccoli with cheese sauce and cut green beans, as well as fresh produce like asparagus, mushrooms, potatoes and kiwi fruit.

In this post however, we’re going to peer back at the older days of Green Giant through some of the companies ads from the mid-twentieth century. Whether you’re a niblet fan or a lover of green peas, there’s sure to be an advertisement below that brings back fond memories or makes you think of the Green Giant commercials and ads that you’ve seen throughout your life.



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{The iconic Jolly Green Giant holds up an equally mammoth ear of corn as rays of sunlight shine around him in this serene and beautiful 1939 advert.}



{This cute ad for peas from 1957 has a sweet hand-drawn quality to it and features a Jolly Green cupid character who strikes me as being something of a precursor for Sprout. Image from Adclassix.com.}



{An elegantly dressed family sits down to dinner with the Jolly Green Giant – who sports a black bow tie – in this 1953 ad, which showedcased the brand’s range of products at the time.}



{This 1950s ad promotes the fact that each can contained two pounds of fresh-picked peas, which makes me think that it was a larger sized can that the ones on shelves today – at least in my neck of the woods.}



{It’s “summer in a can” according to this wonderfully Normal Rockwell-esque example of a tinned corn ad from 1947.}



{The Jolly Green Giant flashed his pearly whites while totting a hefty sized pea pod in this 1955 ad for sweet peas which ran in Family Circle magazine.}



{Famed TV and radio personality (and fellow Canadian!) Art Linkletter lent his image to this 1951 ad for creamed golden sweet corn and Mexican Niblets (corn with diced red and green peppers).}



{A lovely wreath of pods encircle a tin of peas in this festive holiday themed ad from 1951.}



{A sharply dressed young mother watches over two baby carriages, one containing a can of creamed corn, in this charming 1952 ad.}



{This adorable double page ad for sweet peas invited shoppers to send in $2.50 along with proof of purchase if they wanted to take home a darling “Country Girl” doll clad in an outfit featuring an apron with the Jolly Green Giant splashed across it. I’d imagine that this doll is now quite a collectors item.}

{All images above, except for the one example which was denoted otherwise, are from Flickr. To learn more about a specific image, please click on it to be taken to its respective page.}


For even more fantastic vintage Green Giant, be sure to swing by the Gallery of Graphic Design to the collection featured there.

The Green Giant brand is ensconced in both the past and present history of store bought vegetables and canned goods. Their products are tasty, reliable, and as the company’s classic 1930s slogan chimed, they’re “Picked at the fleeting moment of perfect flavour”, making these veggies the perfect year-round staples to have on hand.

Do you have a favourite – past or present – Green Giant product? I for one have always been a big fan of their creamed corn. I know how to make this dish from scratch and often do, but there is still something comforting and wonderful about opening up a tin and eating it by the spoonful (call me odd, but I like really like room temperature or cold cream corn, especially alongside other piping hot foods).

What do memories of Green Giant products, ads, and the friendly mascot duo of the Jolly Green Giant and Sprout, bring to mind for you?

Adventures in vintage advertising: brushing up on the history of toothpaste ads

Like a craving, a bolt of lightning, or the tune to a song you can’t quite recall the correct words to, inspiration for a post can strike anywhere, anytime! :D This morning as I was brushing my teeth, I began thinking about the beautiful way in which toothpaste was often advertised in the past. Ads for this simple, humble daily commodity were (as was the case with so many now vintage products of the past) resplendent works of art in and of themselves.

Long before 4 out of 5 dentists were recommending a particular brand or we had 7,209 various flavours, formulas and colours to choose from, toothpaste was often promoted with a subtle, dignified glamour that makes many of its yesteryear ads worthy of framing.

While those perpetually ahead of their time ancient Egyptians are known to have had a recipe or two for toothpaste, fascinatingly, the commonplace usage of this oral health helper – particularly in conjunction with a toothbrush – did not kick in until the 19th century.

Prior to this time various – and sometimes rather repugnant – formulas for homemade toothpastes (and tooth powders) existed and were employed by some people, but in general dental health was not valued or given even so much as a fraction of the importance it is today.

Luckily for the sake of people who enjoy whispering secrets everywhere, by the Victorian era the use of tooth cleaning products was becoming more and more widely accepted. Towards the end of the eighteen hundreds toothpaste first began appearing in tubes (by 1896 Colgate had produced a “tooth cream” in a tube), a packaging concept that was directly inspired by tubes used to hold artists paint.

As the twentieth century rolled in and onwards, toothpaste (and the use of toothbrushes) gained momentum, which I would venture to say, correlates with the fact that personal hygiene (bathing and washing of one’s hair more often, etc) in general became of greater importance to many people.

Throughout the past century numerous brands of toothpaste emerged onto the market, some of these still exist today, but others are now obsolete (or are much harder to find, such as Ipana - which is still popular in Turkey but rarely found elsewhere these days). Toothpaste ads of the past offer an interesting look into the way oral hygiene has been approached over the past hundred years. Some are little more than simple drawing or photos depicting a certain brand, others (just as with modern day ads) relied on paragraphs of text – and, sometimes promises of what they could do for the buyer – to get the message of their effectiveness across to consumers. Below is a selection of vintage toothpaste ads from the 20th century, each one a glimpse into marketing mind-frame of its respective era.


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{I’m captivated by the sweet, sublimely pretty illustration in this 1917 Pebeco ad. I think that if one were lucky enough to chance upon a copy or a print of it, it would look amazing hung as wall art in the powder room.}



{A lithe little fairy rides atop a tube of Fiat toothpaste in this 1927 Italian ad. I wonder, is this the same Fiat brand known the world over today as a car manufacturer?}



{If we are to believe this Ipana ad, creamy foods were your teeth – and gums’ – worst nightmare in 1934 . Who knew?}



{Aren’t these 1930s woman and their pearly white smiles captivatingly lovely? Though they’re advertising Listerine brand toothpaste, I think they could just have easily been models in a fashion spread of the time.}



{I continually find it both interesting – and perhaps a little sad – that beauty advertisements from the past often blatantly targeted homely gals (the sad part being that they couldn’t just look all women as lovely humans and had to separate the beauty queens from the “plain Janes”). This Ipana ad from 1941 is a prime example of an attempt to appeal their product to women who weren’t “born to beauty”. If you ask me, the women in that photo is a stunner, so I’m not sure if they really conveyed the message they were going for here.}



{Cartoon strip panels – featuring either drawing or photos – which often included the most absurd dialog imaginable, were a popular form of advertisement throughout the mid-twentieth century. This 1941 Colgate ad in which “Sal” morphs from a bad breath totting social pariah to Bob’s future bride is a prime example of what I’m talking about.}



{An elegantly pretty woman graces this no-fuss 1944 ad for Pepsodent toothpaste which ran in the Air Training Corps Gazette.}



{Ads that implied using their brand of toothpaste would ensure you got the date/love of your life were fairly common in the past, such as this 1947 Gleem brand advert in which we see the new couple smooching in a smaller frame on the right hand side.}



{A rather sombre looking woman transforms from reserved to upbeat and chipper the moment she’s asked if she uses Macleans tooth paste, in this ad from 1953.}



{Featuring a series of fantastically mid-century style drawings, this 1956 Crest ad promoted the use of their toothpaste to help “triumph over tooth decay”.}



{With a font that could either be perceived as stylish or frightening, this 1957 S.R. brand toothpaste ad features a neat “block” of water and a gal that looks rather akin to Kirsten Dunst.}



{Does anyone else feel like Colgate was sending slightly mixed signals about tooth health when decided to use a frosted birthday cake in this ad from 1960?.}

{All images above are from Flickr. Please click on an image to be taken to its respective Flickr page.}


What do you think, would these advertisements be enough to convince you to buy their the toothpaste they were selling, or would you much rather just have the wonderful vintage adverts themselves to adorn your scrapbook or walls with?

While it probably wouldn’t be a wise move to use an actual container of vintage toothpaste if you chanced upon one, if you’re wishing that the tubes on the market today had even a fraction of the panache of lovely vintage ones in the ads above, a brand by the name of Marvis makes some extremely beautiful tubes of toothpaste in an assortment of delicious flavours (such as jasmine mint and ginger mint).

I hope you enjoyed this quick tour through the advertisement history of one of most common, everyday items we all use. This post is the first in a new segment based on vintage ads, in which I’ll highlight a number of adverts for a specific product, company or service.

Wishing you each a marvelous Wednesday – and good dental health always! :)

Take the vintage Pepsi Challenge

As a child of the eighties, I’m very familiar with the marketing campaign that was the Pepsi Challenge taste test, which was launched in 1975 and popularized throughout the next couple of decades. The idea behind it was very simple and proved to be considerably effective for the Pepsi company. Participants were given two unmarked cups, one contained Coca Cola (Coke), the other housed Pepsi, they were then asked to try both sodas and decide which one they preferred based on taste alone. PepsiCo generally reported that more folks preferred the taste of Pepsi cola to that of Coke.

While it’s been years since I’ve consumed any soda, growing up on those rare times when I did have pop, I recall preferring Pepsi to Coke (though I don’t remember ever holding a Pepsi Challenge of my own). Interestingly in talking to others of my generation about their cola preference, it seems that Pepsi often wins out, whereas people of my parent’s age bracket really seem to favour Coke. Whether this has to do with Pepsi’s aggressive advertising throughout the 80s and 90s (such as the use of celebrities like Michael Jackson and Britney Spears to endorse their products) or not certainly up for discussion.

Today I thought it would be fun to hold a Pepsi challenge of my own, though this one won’t give you a sugar rush or have you second guessing your own taste buds. While recently perusing the pages of Miss Retro Modern’s Flickr stream, I happened across two utterly stylish vintage soda advertisements, one for Coke and another for Pepsi. I was immediately struck by how deeply elegant they are, both feature exceedingly well dressed young adults, they’re targeted at a the well groomed, clean-cut 1950s middle to upper class, and both are wonderful pieces of advertising artistry.


{1955 Coca Cola ad.}

{VS}


{1959 Pepsi ad.}


My challenge to you, dear readers, is to look briefly at both vintage ads and tell me which one you prefer? Don’t over-think your decision, just go with your gut (alla Blink). There’s no right or wrong choice, this is just for kicks.

Interestingly I feel like I’m drawn a little more to the Coke ad. There is something about the face of pretty young woman in her white pearls and smart outfit that ever-so-slightly reminds me of a younger version of one of my grandmas. This subtle personal tie causes the Coke ad to win this challenge for me. Which soda ad speaks to you first, who wins the Vintage Pepsi Challenge in your books? :)

Hello Vintage Kitty

It's no secret that I'm a huge animal lover, and when you pair a cute critter with vintage illustrations, I fall even further in love. As my kitty, Stella, will no doubt attest to, cats are one of my favourite animals.

For centuries cats have been a popular subject in art and advertisement, and in the mid-twentieth century they really took a hip spin. The word "cat" became common slang for a person, particularly a man, often paired with the word "cool". And in the art world cats were becoming very cool animals indeed. Stylized and streamlined, these adorable creatures were sometimes depicted as looking almost futuristic, with wide almond eyes, large heads and lengthy tails. I adore mid-century cats and couldn't help but smile happily when I spotted a 1950s Zwicky yarn advertisement on one of the best vintage advertisement blogs around, Found in Mom's Basement.


{Sweet, sassy and stylish vintage kitty ad discovered via Found In Mom’s Basemen.}

Too awesome to merely admire, I had to repost the ad here for all my readers who also dig vintage kitties to see. Which in turn got set me on the prowl for other wonderful retro inspired cat themed items, below is a selection of the neatest ones I encountered today.


{I have a lovely beige, green and pink floral print shower curtain in my bathroom at the moment, but if I ever feel like a big change in decor, I’d be very tempted to shell out $19.99US for this wonderful vinyl shower curtain with its big black kitty.}


{Sip some milk or any other beverage you fancy from this lovely kitty shaped mug from ModCloth for $23.99US.}


{While it’s admittedly a little after the Christmas season, I think this mint tin is adorable and certainly vintage themed enough to use all year round. If you want to keep the scent of cat nip off your breath :D, pick up a tin of these mints for $3.25US}.


{Reusable totes are always an eco-friendly move that keeps the thrifty spirit alive. This precious one sports a truly great message that I fully support, having gotten my cat from a shelter. If you’re in favour of promoting kitty adoption too, grab one of these fabric totes for $14.99 to haul home kitty food in.}


{Who wouldn’t want to powder their nose with one of these darling kitty bedecked compacts? At $7.99US a piece, they are priced low enough that you might be tempted to pick up all three colour options.}.


{How incredibly cool is this set of four 6x6 inch prints from artist Kerry Beary on Etsy? Super cool! If you want to add a wallop of retro chic cat style to your pad, nab this set of prints for $65.00US. Kerry Beary's shop is teaming with other wonderful retro kitty prints too.}


{Carry around all of your favourite (kitty or otherwise) toys and necessities in this charming black, white and pink bowling bag style purse. With a hint of rockabilly style and plenty of coolness, this bag is really a steal at $24.99 – and if a bowling bag isn’t your favourite style of purse, a longer “baguette” version is also available.}


{This wonderfully cute 18 by 18 inch black cat cushion almost caused me to bust out the plastic, but I’m trying to be good and not buy anything unnecessary at the moment. Though at $20.99US it probably wouldn’t be too hard to justify the need for a throw pillow this amazing!}

All these marvelous pieces have got me purring with happiness! Have you ever encountered any vintage or retro kitty items that you really thought were the cat's meow?