1928 Gerber Baby Comes Face to Face with 2018 Gerber Baby, Happy Encounter Immediately Goes Viral
Do you know the story behind the iconic Gerber Baby?
The sketch has adorned Gerber’s packaging since 1931 and is an extremely recognizable part of their logo.
In 1928, the company decided to hold a contest to find the Gerber Baby. Dorothy Hope Smith submitted a humble charcoal sketch that competed with vibrant oil paintings.
Smith noted along with her submission that she would finish the piece if she was selected, but the judges ended up preferring the simple sketch.
They named her drawing as the winner and it eventually became the official trademark of the company; it can now be seen on all packaging and advertisements for Gerber.
A poll was taken to see who the American public thought the Gerber Baby was. Some thought it was Elizabeth Taylor or Humphrey Bogart. Others thought it was Jane Seymour.
Ninety-one-year-old mystery novelist and retired English teacher, Ann Turner Cook knew the truth. She was a neighbor of Smith during the time that the sketch was submitted. Her grandson, Chris Colin, even tweeted a picture showing the resemblance.
In 2010, the company began holding yearly competitions to find a “spokesbaby” for that year. In 2018, Gerber named the first spokesbaby with Down syndrome, Lucas Warren.
Lucas was congratulated by past spokesbabies as well as Cook.
She said, “Let me offer my warmest congratulations to Lucas, our newest Gerber spokesbaby, and to his parents. I know you will take great pride in representing Gerber this year, as I have for the past 90 years. There is no greater privilege than to be a universal symbol for babies all over the world. I am delighted to take part in this celebration. Lucas is precious and I look forward to watching him grow this year!”
While the Warren family was vacationing in Florida, they decided to reach out to Cook to see if she would be willing to meet little Lucas.
Gerber was able to help the two meet up and the picture that resulted will make your heart melt. Colin tweeted the picture of his grandmother with Lucas and it’s now been shared over 8,000 times.
“My grandmother was the Gerber baby. It was a funny bit of trivia, never made her rich or got us free strained peas or anything. But last week she got to meet the company’s newest spokesbaby, named Lucas. Pretty pretttty cute,” he wrote.
Gerber later shared the photo on their Instagram. The caption read, “Those iconic Gerber smiles ?The original Gerber baby, Ann Turner Cook, meets our Spokesbaby Lucas ??? #HistoryMade #AnythingForBaby”
Two adorable faces of the company’s history collided and it’s such a sweet sight to see!
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