the story of elsie

In the 1930s, the dairy industry had its share of public relations and consumer problems. Well-publicized “milk wars” were raging between farmers and dairy processors. This caused the big dairies in particular to be seen as evil moneymakers off both the farmers and the public. This kind of public opinion is difficult to change, so Borden concluded the best approach was a friendly one that would cause people to laugh, or at least smile a little. This same approach to advertising has served Borden very well over the years.

The most difficult of all proving grounds was selected as a test for this new kind of advertising: the then extremely dignified medical journals. In 1936, Borden launched the medical advertising series that was to result in the creation of Elsie the Borden Cow. These were by no means the Elsie ads we know of today, but they were ads featuring a variety of cartoon cows with a variety of names, including Mrs. Blossom, Bessie, Clara…and Elsie.

Doctors loved the ads and swamped the company with requests for reprints to hang in office waiting rooms. While the medical campaign continued, Borden also began testing it in a few New York area newspapers. But it was in 1938 that Elsie came to life coast to coast in both the U.S. and Canada. Borden was then sponsoring a network news commentator named Rush Hughes. A radio copywriter, intrigued by one of the medical journal ads, prepared a commercial that delighted Hughes so much that he read it himself. It made reference to the following letter:

Dear Mama,
I’m so excited I can hardly chew. We girls are sending our milk to Borden’s now!

That commercial so amused Hughes’ listeners that fan mail began coming in addressed not to him, but to Elsie. It was at that moment that Elsie became the spokescow for Borden.

By 1939, Elsie had made her debut in national consumer magazines and had been quickly adopted by all of the company’s milk plants as a feature of local community promotional programs. She had even made an appearance on a bottle cap. And on the air, she and Rush Hughes continued their regular correspondence. At the time, Borden was preparing to open a very fancy, scientifically important exhibit at the New York World’s Fair, and it seemed only natural to include a few cartoons of Elsie at the exhibit. However, the focal point was a new “rotolactor,” a kind of merry-go-round where cows were automatically milked on a 360 degree cycle. Seven young hostesses had been trained to answer every scientific question and were instructed to keep logs of the questions most often asked. At the first month’s end the tally was:

• 20% about the rotolactor
• 20% about the location of the restrooms
• 60% about which of the 150 cows was Elsie

Elsie’s popularity was confirmed, and it was obvious Borden was going to disappoint a lot of people if they couldn’t produce a real Elsie, and fast. Of all the cows in the exhibit, the most beautiful was a seven-year-old blue-blooded Jersey from Brookfield, Massachusetts, whose registered name was “You’ll Do, Lobelia.” For the rest of the season, this particular Elsie, dressed in a beautifully-embroidered green blanket, was put all alone on the rotolactor twice each day for all to see, and millions did. Borden’s advertising department soon learned that most cows are natural hams if given the opportunity, and Lobelia was among the hammiest. She really seemed to smile at the crowds, and the public took her to their hearts.

And that is how the live Elsie was born.

Following the close of the Fair’s first season, Elsie was scheduled to return to her Massachusetts farm but first, at the Roosevelt Hotel, she paused to give an appreciation party for all the press who had been so kind to her. That sparked more press coverage and invitations to more events in New York. She never did get home that winter. Instead, she went from party to party along the east coast including a “Bovine Ball” sponsored by New York’s socially elite Seventh Regiment where she outshone two bands and a hundred beautiful debutantes. She also dined at the Stork Club and “21” and eventually came to know every freight elevator of every exclusive hotel in the east. The majority of her appearances tied into charity causes, including considerable World War II relief work.

There had been no time to design a special setting for Elsie in the Fair’s first season, but in 1940, Borden decided to make Elsie the focal point of the entire exhibit with a custom designed “Barn Colonial” boudoir. The room featured as many whimsical props as the advertising department could think up: churns used as tables, milk bottles for lamps, a wheelbarrow for a chaise lounge, and oil paintings of Elsie’s ancestors, among them Great Aunt Bess in her bridal gown and Uncle Bosworth, the noted Spanish-American War Admiral. This first boudoir established the decorating scheme not only for the set on the road, but also in the magazine ads where Elsie was seen in a similar Barn Colonial home environment.

Following the Fair’s closing in October of 1940, Elsie took up traveling in a serious way. An enormous boudoir, one that required transportation by an entire railway freight car, was designed to accompany her. Elsie went to Philadelphia where she met 228,000 fans over a three-week period at Gimbels and pushed Santa Claus clear into the rug department. Then she came back to New York to host a party at Madison Square Garden in support of War Defense Bonds.

As the decades progressed, her popularity grew and Elsie became more than just a cartoon cow – she personified young working moms across the country. By the 1960s, a nationwide survey confirmed that Elsie was the best known and loved corporate trademark in the country.

Today, Elsie continues to tour and promote Borden’s legacy of healthy dairy products. She travels nonstop, almost a quarter of a million miles, meets over 11 million people per year and is one of the most recognized icons of all time.