The Pet Milk Company “Happy Family” Advertising Campaign

Abstract

During the 1950s, the Pet Milk Company conducted a groundbreaking advertising campaign that used black spokespeople and unique ad copy to reach the so-called Negro market. The “happy family” campaign, led by the black ad executive W. Leonard Evans Jr., applied the well-established, but then largely ignored, market research dating back to the 1920s that proved the market potential and successful advertising methods for a distinct audience of black consumers. This qualitative study is the first to analyze the ads, which appeared in the Birmingham (Alabama) World, Washington (D. C.) Afro-American, Los Angeles Sentinel, and other black periodicals. The “happy family” campaign regularly exposed black consumers to PET Milk and promoted brand loyalty. It also reflected the growing civil rights movement and topics that would have resonated with the Negro market, including black pride, racial uplift, and equality with white individuals.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kimberley Mangun

KIMBERLEY MANGUN, left, is an associate professor of communication at the University of Utah. She studies the African American press and representations of women, race, and ethnicity in journalism history. Her award-winning book, published by Oregon State University Press in 2010, examined the career of Beatrice Morrow Cannady, a newspaper publisher who advocated for civil rights in Portland, Oregon, from 1912 until 1936. Mangun's research has been published in American Journalism, Newspaper Research Journal, Oregon Historical Quarterly, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, African American National Biography, and BlackPast.org.

Lisa M. Parcell

LISA MULLIKIN PARCELL is an associate professor in the Elliott School of Communication, Wichita State University. Her research focuses on public relations and the promotion of food in America. Parcell's work has been published in the journals American Journalism and Journalism History and she is co-editor of American Journalism: History, Principles, Practices.