Elsie the Cow’s Rise to Stardom

America's most famous "spokescow" turns 85 years old.

By Sam Moore
Published on June 1, 2004
article image
courtesy John Moore
Two hostesses care for Elsie in her boudoir at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

Almost everyone in America knows Elsie the Cow, the bright-eyed, smiling Jersey with a curl between her horns and a chain of daisies around her neck. Yet, few people know the fascinating tale about how the country’s most famous cow became a household name.

1930s milk wars

Elsie first appeared in 1938 as a cartoon-like cow that advertised products for Borden’s Condensed Milk Co. During the late 1930s, three large milk companies — Sheffield Farms Milk Co., the U.S. Dairy Products Co. and Borden’s — sold two-thirds of all the fluid milk consumed in New York City. Without outside competition, the companies cut the price they paid farmers who supplied them with milk. As a result, large numbers of New York farmers organized, declared a strike and began dumping their product rather than accept fixed prices.

These so-called “milk wars” occurred in different parts of the country during the 1930s, which resulted in huge amounts of wasted milk while people went hungry — and many dairy farmers went broke. In addition, violence naturally accompanied the strikes and public opinion was usually against the strikers.

New York farmers, however, joined the Dairy Farmers’ Union of the State of New York, a well-organized group that kept the strikers under control and violence to a minimum. The union was successful in negotiating higher prices for its members’ milk, while at the same time waging an effective public relations campaign that turned public opinion against the large milk firms.

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