Gerber products have been a part of every baby’s life for almost a century now. The brand is so popular that it’s the first thing that comes to mind when we say baby food. Not only are they providing baby food, but the company has also made efforts in assisting parents with tips and advice when it comes to pregnancy and in raising your child.
The company was founded in 1927 but they were only producing canned fruit and vegetables at the time. It was founded by Daniel Frank Gerber whose wife was a pediatrician. His wife then began making hand-strained food for their seven-month-old daughter, Sally.
This is when Gerber recognized a business opportunity in selling ready to eat baby food.
His company then started manufacturing baby food and by 1928, they’ve already developed five products for the market: beef vegetable soup and strained peas, prunes, carrots, and spinach.
In the same year, Gerber held out a contest to find a face to represent a baby food advertising campaign. As they were getting ready to launch their new line of baby food, they invited artists to submit various renditions of Gerber babies.
Most of the artists submitted detailed oil paintings, but Dorothy Hope Smith, who specialized in children’s portraits, submitted a simple charcoal sketch.
Turns out Smith had a four-month-old neighbor named Ann Taylor Cook at the time. She simply sketched Cook’s adorable face and described it as a “simple charcoal sketch of a tousle-haired, bright-eyed cherub of a baby with endearing pursed lips.”
Cook was born on November 20, 1926, wherein her father was a cartoonist responsible for the comic strip ‘Captain Easy’. Smith was a family friend and during that time, it wasn’t so unusual to draw baby sketches so nobody thought much about it.
So when Smith submitted her sketch of baby Cook, the Gerber executives fell in love with her cherub face. Finally, they found the face that would represent their line of baby food products.
“She wrote me (later) that she had thought it was kind of unfinished, and if they liked it she could finish it properly,” Cook said of the sketch. “But they were smart enough that they didn’t want anything done to it.”
When her sketch won, Smith said to the officials that she would complete it, but the company was enamored with the original drawing and they trademarked it in 1931.
“The logo is the essence of who we are,” said David Yates, vice president of Gerber’s North America operations. “It is the epitome of a happy, healthy baby and the symbol of trust we have with parents. It’s everything to our company.”
Despite being one of the most recognizable faces in the world, the true identity of the Gerber baby remained a mystery for a time. Some even speculated that the doe-eyed baby was that of a young Elizabeth Taylor or Humphrey Bogart.
Cook Didn’t have much contact with Gerber after that. She later moved to Florida where she currently resides. She had a family of her own and raised four children. She taught English for more than 26 years and became a mystery novelist after she retired.
This year, the original Gerber baby celebrated her 94th birthday with friends and family. Her face has forever been immortalized as she mentioned in an interview back in 2013.
“I was a happy, healthy baby and I think that’s why the drawing has been so appealing to people,” Cook told WTVT. “Because everybody wants their baby to be happy, healthy-looking.”
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