The Millstone Times August 2018

The Logic of Logos and Catchphrases Coffee Slogans of the Past! By Pam Teel

Do you remember growing up all the commercials for coffee on television? Of course back then you knew every brand of coffee that was on the market. Not like today where stores like Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have turned coffee into a trendy commodity. Supermarket brands of coffee back then were also a hit thing. A&P’s Eight O’ Clock coffee was a number one coffee bean seller adding to the fact that you bought it as beans and got to ground it right in the supermarket before you left, thus making it the freshest ground coffee you could get. Advertisers used catchy jingles, memorable spokespersons, heartfelt commercials and catchy slogans that are to this day instilled in our heads. Remember Maxwell house coffee and its slogan - Good to the last drop? This may be the single most recog- nizable coffee slogan of all time. Maxwell House has been in use since 1917. One of their commercials dis- played actress Margaret Hamilton who played the wicked witch of the west inThe Wizard of Oz. She was Cora, the proprietor of a little rural general store who only sold Maxwell house coffee. The slogan, “With Maxwell House it doesn’t matter who makes the coffee, as long as it’s Maxwell house.” The newest slogan being used today is, “Make your house a Maxwell House,” with employees singing made up lyrics to the Madness Song “Our House.”

General foods coffee campaign used a warm and cozy approach for their international coffees. Their tagline for their instant Cafe Au Lait, Suisse Mocha, and Cafe Vienna was “Celebrate the Moments of your Life”. The ads all featured girl get-togethers with lines like “It’s like when you eat chocolate and your boyfriend eats a peppermint and you kiss! Do you remember, “The best thing about waking up is Folgers in your cup”? In the commercials someone would replace fresh brewed coffee with Folgers instant crystals to see if people could tell the difference and of course they couldn’t!!!!!!! Going back even earlier, actress Virginia Christine played Mrs. Olsen. She was the face of Folgers through most of the 50’s. She was the Swedish neighbor of a lot of different women who just couldn’t make good coffee. Mrs. Olsen was always there to step in to help in all sorts of situations. Remember Brim decaffeinated coffee? They were Sanka’s competitors. There had a cute slogan. The commercial showed a hostess pouring cof- fee to a guest and the guest saying “only a half a cup for me,” but the hostess explained that Brim decaf is the coffee that won’t keep you up all night and the guest then goes on to say, “Then fill it to the rim with Brim!!!” Who can forget the face of Juan Valdez, a fictional character created by the Doyle Dane Bernbacj ad agency for the National Federation of Coffee growers of Colombia to distinguish 100 percent Colombian cof- fee from other brands that were blended with coffee beans from other countries. He typically appears with his mule Conchita, carrying sacks of harvested coffee beans. He has become an icon for Colombia as well as coffee in general.

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The Millstone Times

August 2018