Noticed on the street in Palo Alto a few days ago, a delivery truck for Clover Stornetta Farms (in Sonoma County) with a Mount Rushmooer billboard on its side. (I haven’t been able to find an image on-line, but you can imagine a cross between Mount Rushmore and cows.) It turns out that the dairy has been producing these comic billboards since its founding in the 1970s; a sampling can be found on the website.
The cartoon cow Clo is the company’s mascot. Here’s Clo in a billboard for D-Day in 1996, celebrating milk and France:
(I am unavoidably reminded of Prime Minister Pierre Mendès-France trying to encourage French workers to switch over from wine to milk, as in this photo:
A quixotic campaign.)
Clo is too local a celebrity to make it into Wikipedia’s big list of mascots and characters in American advertising, but she’s quite visible in northern California. Some of the billboards play on her name:
Shake, Rattle, & Clo!; SanFrancisClo; Clo’s call
and many on moo, as in Mount Rushmooer:
Moolin Rouge; Mooey bueno; Moovin’ right along; The New Moollennium
with a sprinkling of puns on other cow- and milk-related words:
Amazing Graze; Outstanding in her field; Splendor in the glass; Quartship; Quart Jester; Pitcher perfect; Dairy Godmother
Just a sampling.
April 30, 2012 at 3:04 pm |
Canberra, Australia has a version of this. Canturf has punny billboards that change every year or so. People deliberately look out for them when they’re driving to the coast for holidays. Here are a few examples:
http://blog.abn.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/NeridaGill-Post-sign-canturf.jpeg
http://moose.cutflat.net/photos/thumbs/seed.jpg
http://moose.cutflat.net/photos/thumbs/plants.jpg
(the last two are kind of small).
April 30, 2012 at 3:31 pm |
Is this it? http://www.pbase.com/image/82168496
April 30, 2012 at 3:32 pm |
Yes! Many thanks.