Dorothy Hope Smith

Child Care & Development : History of Gerber Baby Foods

The history of Gerber baby foods starts in 1927, and it has evolved into a global company that controls 83 percent of United States market share. Learn more about the history of Gerber with tips from a practicing pediatrician in this free video on child care.  Expert: Dr. David Hill, Contact: www.capefearpediatrics.com, Bio: Dr. David Hill is a graduate of the University of North Carolina Internal Medicine, Pediatrics combined residency and Filmmaker: Reel Media LLC.

The Gerber Baby is the trademark logo of the Gerber Products Company.

History 

Fremont Canning Company, owned and operated by Frank Daniel Gerber and his son Daniel Frank Gerber, were looking for a baby face for its new baby-food campaign that was to start in the later part of 1928.   To find a baby face that it believed would represent the new baby food best, the Fremont Canning Company conducted a contest in the summer of 1928.   Many drawings and paintings were submitted. Some were elaborate baby portraits in oil paint while others were simple sketches.

Dorothy Hope Smith, of Westport, Connecticut, an artist specializing in children’s drawings, submitted an unfinished charcoal drawing that was closer to a simple sketch than a professional drawing.   This five-month-old baby was drawn with tousled hair, bright blue eyes, and round pursed lips. Smith told the judges that, if the sketch was selected as the winner, she would finish it professionally.   The drawing won; but, to her surprise, the judges wanted no changes to it.

Dorothy Hope Smith

In 1928, the “Gerber Baby” symbol was introduced to help identify the new product.   It was first used in a baby-food advertisement in Good Housekeeping. Within sixty days, Gerber Strained Foods using the “Gerber Baby” symbol had gained national recognition and it was distributed to various places throughout the United States.   It became internationally recognized.

The campaign got mothers of newborns to participate directly in a coupon-redemption program. The introductory offer gave each consumer six cans of the canning company’s soup and strained vegetables for a dollar in exchange for the name of a favorite grocer. The idea was to stress the nutritional value of Gerber’s baby foods and the time- and money-saving advantages over buying by prescription. The sketch was so popular that it became the Fremont Canning Company’s official trademark in 1931. The Gerber Baby has since appeared on all Gerber packaging and in every Gerber advertisement.   The Fremont Canning Company changed its name to Gerber Products Company in 1941.

In 1996 the Gerber company revealed its first new label in more than 40 years. Present at the introduction ceremony was the model for Smith’s original sketch, Ann Turner Cook, who had grown up to be a mystery novelist and English teacher. She was seventy years old at the time of the ceremony. Cook is said to be the world’s best-known baby because of the company’s trademark.   Although she avoided publicity for many years, Cook more recently has granted interviews to several Florida newspapers.

In early 2011, the company was in the process of looking for the next Gerber Baby, and eventually chose a toddler named Mercy. There was once a poll conducted in the United States, which showed that many people thought that the Gerber Baby became someone famous, such as Humphrey Bogart, Elizabeth Taylor, or Ernest Borgnine.   The Gerber Baby trademark has been shown by the United States public to be associated with the highest consumer loyalty, according to a 1998 survey.