New-York tribune., 1905-01-08
BREAKFAST FOOD FAD.
Some of the Humors of the Situation
in Minds of Commuters.

has so Sharpened competition Inal lLelr hiaAeiS
are driven to more and more extraordinary de-
vices to catch the eye OF the blase public When
a new food appears it must proclaim itself In |
some novel and unusual fashion, or it is likely I
to be doomed to die unhonored and uncooked
It must have a name that not only strikes the /
mind, but sticks in it
There was time when breakfast food ad-
vertisements were plain as the ingredients |
which they claimed to possess Then some
bright manufacturer heralded his new product
In rhyme, and the hungry world read and
laughed One after another other breakfast |
food makers sought fortune by the help Of the |
MUSES., so that now es many signs are in poetry |
as in prose Purity was long the chief watch |
word among breakfast food manufacturers, |
when some one hit on the idea that strength |
would be a stin better slogan. The morning |
meal he argued was not intended to supply |
pleasure so much muscle and brain power.
It was the breakfast which prepared man
for business. just as the late supper fitted his
mood after the theatre or the club. According |
Iy, he made the countryside stare at great por-
traits of a giant carrying the world in one hand
and a package of his breakfast food I'm the
other. :
Another maker of an "aIready cooked" food
believed that mirth should result from the
breakfast az wen strength For many years
he had sought the public's appetite for display |
Ing the picture OK q QeVout anu religious
who was supposed to symbolic the purity of
this food. At last he rival maker coining !
money with q preparation which was adver |
tiseS to make man laugh all day long. Taking |
the cue he Immediately ordered his saint to
appear thereafter with a broad grin.
The most effective advertising is that which |
the public absorbs unconsciously. A joke on
the stage, for example, which throws out the J
name of some brand Of -four with apparent in
than a 1O-foot bin board poster, which the tired |
eye looks at but does not see
It is for this reason, perhaps. that the maker |
of a recent food preparation named a horse in |
its honor. that all the crowds at the race
tracks as well all the sporting readers OF the |
newspapers would talk and gossip about that |
name.
The originality of breakfast food makers was |
the subject of conversation between two COM
muters the other morning. who had chanced to /
see through the windows a particularly |
novel bin board advertisement the Hacken- !
sack Meadows.
Some of these bin board signs ingenious" |
said one suburbanite who was the head of
large family. ''but It does not compare with a
scheme to which have fallen victim"
"a new scheme?' queried the other Jersey |
man, who had moved into the country to build /
up his physique by shovelling and sprint
ing for trains.
why yes" was the answer. when came |
home the other night my wife said:
"'Oh, hubby, 1 want to attend that instan- |
taneous food festival. 1t will be at the church |
next Thursday. All the women in Dream Valley /
going
My DEAR said I, you have my consent.
have objections to instantaneous food" un-
less there is danger of explosion. 1t may be |
made out of dynamite and be self-raising when |
you drop it
"'Oh, that's lovelyi' said she. 1T will cost /
only 80 cents apiece, and Bertha and Anna and /
Susie and Matte and Jennie and Katie and |
Jessie and Susan and myself all want to go. |
It's such novel thing. you know
We'll figured it up. and found that if my |
wife and all my daughters went 1 stuck /
for Just 81 sc. Come to find out. it all an |
advertising scheme for Instantaneous food |
You see this breakfast food company went to
the rector of the church and offered to furnish |
the festival If he would guarantee that more
than hundred would attend. He |
said that each woman should pay so cents for |
a ticket and that all the money should 80 to |
foreign missions and be used to convert the |
heather. The rector gladly accepted the offer, |
and they had the festival. I've been eating in
stantaneous food ever since. Don't nudge me /
or will blow up"
do you think it has given you any more
strength" asked the other commuter. he |