Gerber Baby

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, was looking for a baby face for its new baby-food campaign that was to start in the latter part of 1928. To find a baby face that it believed would best represent the new baby food, 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. Smith told the judges that, if the sketch were selected as the winner, she would finish it professionally. The drawing won but, to her surprise, the judges wanted no changes to it.

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 magazine. Within sixty days, Gerber Strained Foods, using the “Gerber Baby” symbol, had gained national recognition, being distributed to various places throughout the United States. It became internationally recognized.