Elsie the Cow
{{Short description|Cartoon mascot}}
{{Infobox character
| name = Elsie the Cow
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| image = Elsie the cow.jpg
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| caption = Elsie in a 1948 ad
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| first = {{start date and age|1936}}
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| creator = Borden, Inc.
| based_on = Cow
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| nationality = American
}}
Elsie the Cow is a cartoon cow developed as a mascot for the Borden Dairy Company in 1936 to symbolize the "perfect dairy product".{{cite news |last1=Schlueter |first1=Roger |title=Here's what happened to the Borden Co. and its cow |url=http://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article178340236.html |accessdate=16 June 2018 |work=Belleville News-Democrat |date=October 12, 2017 |language=en}} Since the demise of Borden in the mid-1990s, the character has continued to be used in the same capacity for the company's partial successors, Eagle Family Foods (owned by J.M. Smucker) and Borden Dairy.
Named one of the Top 10 Advertising Icons of the [20th] Century by Ad Age in 2000,{{cite web|title=Top 10 Advertising Icons Of The Century| url=http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/ad-age-advertising-century-top-10-icons/140157/ | work= Ad Age | date= March 29, 1999| accessdate= June 1, 2011|archivedate=November 15, 2017 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20171115034651/http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/ad-age-advertising-century-top-10-icons/140157/|url-status=live}} Elsie the Cow has been among the most recognizable product logos in the United States and Canada.{{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Mary |title=A Century of American Icons: 100 Products and Slogans from the 20th-Century Consumer Culture |date=2002 |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=978-0313314810 |accessdate=4 September 2020 |url=https://archive.org/details/centuryofamerica00cros/page/82/ |pages=82–84}}{{cite web| title=History [of Borden company, including Elsie]| url= http://friendsofelsie.com/about-us/history|publisher=Borden|accessdate=June 20, 2011|archivedate = April 30, 2016| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20160430074826/http://bordencheese.com/about-us/history}}
History
The cartoon Elsie was created in 1936{{cite web|url=https://www.bordendairy.com/history/|title=Elsie's Corner: History|publisher=Borden|accessdate=December 6, 2017| archivedate=June 22, 2017 |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20170622193450/http://www.bordendairy.com/history/ |url-status=live}} by a team headed by advertising creative director David William Reid.{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/19/BAG5J3QVLG1.DTL|title=David Reid -- creator of Elsie the Cow|first=Carl|last=Nolte|work=San Francisco Chronicle|date=December 19, 2003|accessdate=December 6, 2017|archivedate=May 2, 2017|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502210203/http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/David-Reid-creator-of-Elsie-the-Cow-2545594.php|url-status=live}} Elsie first appeared as one of four cartoon cows (with Mrs. Blossom, Bessie, and Clara) in a 1936 magazine advertisement series featured in medical journals.{{cite book |last1=Dotz |first1=Warren |last2=Morton |first2=Jim |title=What a Character! 20th Century American Advertising Icons |date=1996 |publisher=Chronicle Books |isbn=0-8118-0936-6 |pages=43–44}} By 1939, she was featured in her own advertisement campaign that was voted "best of the year" by the Jury of the 1939 Annual Advertising Awards.{{cite web|title=Elsie|url=http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/140179/|publisher=Ad Age|accessdate=December 16, 2017|language=en|date=March 29, 1999|archive-date=December 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171216144036/http://adage.com/article/special-report-the-advertising-century/140179/|url-status=dead}}
File:Borden ad elsie cow 1940 ad.jpg advertisement, 1940]]
The first living Elsie was a registered Jersey heifer selected while participating in Borden's 1939 New York World's Fair "Rotolactor" exhibit (demonstrating the company's invention, the rotary milking parlor). The most alert cow at the demonstration, she was born at Elm Hill Farm in Brookfield, Massachusetts and named "You'll Do, Lobelia".{{cite book|last1=Hart|first1=William |last2= Hart |first2= Bill|title=Plainsboro|date=2003|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|page=117|isbn=9780738511689 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmIkwunG2C0C&dq=Elsie+the+Cow+brookfield+ma&pg=PA117}} After being purchased from her owners, family farmers from Connecticut, she spent the rest of the season on display twice each day dressed in an embroidered green blanket,{{cite web|publisher=Walker Gordon Farm|url=http://walkergordononline.com/history.asp|title=History|accessdate=December 6, 2017|archivedate=February 5, 2013|archiveurl=https://archive.today/20130205183059/http://walkergordononline.com/history.asp|url-status=live}} and after the exhibit, she traveled around the country making public appearances. You'll Do, Lobelia is buried at her home in the Walker-Gordon Farm in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Her tomb stone is marked with the fitting title of "one of the great Elsies of our time.
Elsie had a fictional, cartoon mate, Elmer the Bull, who was created in 1940 and lent to Borden's then chemical-division as the mascot for Elmer's Products. The pair was given teenage offspring Beulah sometime before 1947, the year baby Beauregard arrived. Twins Larabee and Lobelia appeared in 1957.
In 1940, the actual cow Elsie appeared in the film, Little Men,{{cite web|last1=Hickman|first1=Matt|title=7 cows that history won't soon forget|url=https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/7-cows-that-history-wont-soon-forget|website=MNN|publisher=Mother Nature Network|accessdate=December 15, 2017|language=en|date=April 6, 2015}} as "Buttercup". For a time in the mid-1940s, the cartoon Elsie was voiced by Hope Emerson.[https://www.filmcomment.com/article/hope-emerson/ A Face in the Crowd: Hope Emerson]
by Chuck Stephens in the May–June 2015 Issue on Filmcomment.com Elsie and her cartoon calves were featured in Elsie's Boudoir at Freedomland U.S.A.—an American-history theme park in the Bronx, New York—from 1960 to 1963. A live cow representing Elsie appeared on stage at the Borden's exhibit in the Better Living Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair, in a musical revue with a score by the Broadway composer Kay Swift.[https://web.archive.org/web/20040702222420/http://www.brookfieldma.us/Elsie.htm The Crowds Found Her Udderly Fascinating] from an article by Diana and John Spencer (archived, 2 Jul 2004)
Elsie has been bestowed such tongue-in-cheek honorary university degrees as Doctor of Bovinity, Doctor of Human Kindness, and Doctor of Ecownomics. In Wisconsin, home of the Dairy Princess, Elsie was named Queen of Dairyland. The City of Bridgeport, Connecticut presented her with their P. T. Barnum Award of Showmanship.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}
Living version
The success of the character encouraged Borden to promote a real life version of Elsie, with the name "You'll Do Lobelia", being her appearance in 1939. This version of Elsie became a well-known.[https://daily.jstor.org/who-was-elsie-worlds-most-famous-cow/ Who Was Elsie, besides the World’s Most Famous Cow?] by Livia Gershon, December 13, 2019 being noted as "the most famous icon in the U.S.", ranking above The Campbell Soup Kids, the Marlboro Man, and The Jolly Green Giant.[https://www.communitynews.org/towns/west-windsor-plainsboro-news/iconic-advertising-symbol-elsie-the-cow-lived-and-died-in-plainsboro/article_38fd7eb4-b743-51b3-9df9-54868dd43a92.html Iconic advertising symbol Elsie the Cow lived and died in Plainsboro] by William Hart on Community News, May 1, 2021
Lobelia died in 1941 after a traffic accident, just two years after her rise to fame.[https://www.nytimes.com/1941/04/22/archives/elsie-publicity-mans-dream-cow-dies-after-career-at-world-fair-and.html Elsie, Publicity Man's Dream Cow, Dies After Career at World Fair and Hollywood] on the New York Times, 22 Apr 1941 Her tombstone is at Plainsboro, NJ.[https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3316 Tombstone of Elsie the Cow] at Roadside America.com Since then, other "Elsies" took her place as Borden's spokescow.[https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/elsie-cow-massachusetts-starlet-brought-cartoon-life/ Elsie the Cow – The Massachusetts Starlet Who Brought a Cartoon to Life] on the New England Historic Society
Elsie and her bull calf son "Beauregard" made yearly appearances in the Food & Fiber Pavilion at the State Fair of Texas until retirement after their final fair in 2013.
References
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External links
- [http://gogd.tjs-labs.com/gallery-view?keyword=elsie Collection of mid-century Elsie the Cow advertising] at The Gallery of Graphic Design
{{Borden, Inc.}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Elsie The Cow}}
Category:Anthropomorphic cattle
Category:Female characters in advertising
Category:Drink advertising characters
Category:Mascots introduced in 1936
Category:Food advertising characters