The Gerber Baby is the trademark logo

Logo

A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...

 of the Gerber Products Company

Gerber Products Company

Gerber Products Company is a purveyor of baby food and baby products. A former American-owned company, Gerber is now a subsidiary of Nestlé, and is currently located in Fremont, Michigan, USA.-History:...

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History

Fremont Canning Company

Fremont Canning Company

Fremont Canning Company established the baby food enterprise of Gerber Products Company.-Founders:The company was founded by Frank Daniel Gerber and his father in 1901 in Fremont, Michigan. The canning company began with a ten thousand dollar investment. The firm initially marketed canned peas,...

, owned and operated by Frank Daniel Gerber

Frank Daniel Gerber

Frank Daniel Gerber was an American manufacturer of baby food.- Early life :Gerber was born in the town of Douglas in Allegan County, Michigan in 1873. He graduated from Fremont High School of Western Michigan in 1887...

 and his son Daniel Frank Gerber

Daniel Frank Gerber

- Early life :Gerber, the subject of this article, went by the name "Dan" to his friends and relatives. He was born in Fremont of Newaygo County, Michigan, in 1898 – the son of Frank Daniel Gerber.- Mid life :...

, were looking for a baby face for its new baby-food campaign that was to start in the later part of 1928. To find a baby face that it believed would represent the new baby food best, the Fremont Canning Company conducted a contest in the summer of 1928. Many drawings and paintings were submitted. Some were elaborate baby portraits in oil paint while others were simple sketches.

Dorothy Hope Smith, of Westport, Connecticut

Westport, Connecticut

-Neighborhoods:* Saugatuck – around the Westport railroad station near the southwestern corner of the town – a built-up area with some restaurants, stores and offices....

, an artist specializing in children’s drawings, submitted an unfinished charcoal drawing that was closer to a simple sketch than a professional drawing. This five-month-old baby was drawn with tousled hair, bright blue eyes, and round pursed lips. Smith told the judges that, if the sketch was selected as the winner, she would finish it professionally. The drawing won; but, to her surprise, the judges wanted no changes to it.

In 1928, the "Gerber Baby" symbol was introduced to help identify the new product. It was first used in a baby-food advertisement in Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping

Good Housekeeping is a women's magazine owned by the Hearst Corporation, featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, health as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good Housekeeping Seal," popularly known as the...

. Within sixty days, Gerber Strained Foods using the "Gerber Baby" symbol had gained national recognition and it was distributed to various places throughout the United States. It became internationally recognized before long [be more specific than "before long"].

The campaign got mothers of newborns to participate directly in a coupon-redemption program. With the introductory offer gave each consumer six cans of the canning company’s soup and strained vegetables for a dollar in exchange for the name of a favorite grocer. The idea was to stress the nutritional value of Gerber's baby foods and the time- and money-saving advantages over buying by prescription. The sketch was so popular that it became the Fremont Canning Company's official trademark in 1931. The Gerber Baby has since appeared on all Gerber packaging and in every Gerber advertisement.

Ann Turner Cook

Ann Turner Cook

Ann Turner Cook is an American mystery novelist, who was the model for the familiar Gerber Baby artwork seen on baby-food packages of the Gerber Products Company.-Gerber baby:...

 is said to be the world's best-known baby because of the company’s trademark.

The Fremont Canning Company changed its name to Gerber Products Company in 1941. In 1996 the company revealed its first new label in more than 40 years. Sixty-eight-year-old Ann Turner Cook, who posed for the original Smith sketch, was at the company’s introduction. She is a mystery novelist and retired English teacher. Although she avoided publicity for many years, she more recently has granted interviews to several Florida newspapers.

In early 2011, the company was in the process of looking for the next Gerber Baby, and eventually chose a toddler named Mercy. There was once a poll

Opinion poll

An opinion poll, sometimes simply referred to as a poll is a survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinions of a population by conducting a series of questions and then extrapolating generalities in ratio or within confidence...

 conducted in the United States, which showed that many people thought that the Gerber Baby became someone famous, such as Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey Bogart

Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....

, Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor

Dame Elizabeth Rosemond "Liz" Taylor, DBE was a British-American actress. From her early years as a child star with MGM, she became one of the great screen actresses of Hollywood's Golden Age...

, or Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine

Ernest Borgnine is an American actor of television and film. His career has spanned more than six decades. He was an unconventional lead in many films of the 1950s, including his Academy Award-winning turn in the 1955 film Marty...

. The Gerber Baby trademark has been shown by the United States public to be associated with the highest consumer loyalty, according to a 1998 survey.

Sources

• Avakian, Arlene Voski et al., From Betty Crocker to Feminist Food Studies, Liverpool University Press (2005), ISBN 1-5584951-1-8

• Belasco, Warren James, Food Nations, Routledge (2002), ISBN 0-4159307-6-6

• Heim, Michael, Exploring America's Highways, Exploring America's Highway (2004), ISBN 0-9744358-2-1

• Ingham, John N., Biographical Dictionary of American Business Leaders: A-G, Greenwood Publishing Group (1983), ISBN 0-3132390-7-X