Force Breakfast Cereal and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad Accounts
When Calkins & Holden was in its infancy,
a food-paper solicitor in desperate need of business contacted Calkins. Through
him, Calkins learned that Alfred Rose might require advertising for Norka Malted
Oats, a campaign Calkins once managed in New York. Calkins and Holden immediately
offered their services. In so doing, Holden obtained an order for a series of
horse-feed newspaper advertisements (Calkins, 1924). Rose, in turn, forwarded
the ads to his Buffalo principal and brother-in-law, Edward Ellsworth, the famed
owner of two cereal companies. The horse-feed happened to be a by-product of
one of the companies (Calkins, 1924).
Calkins and Holden's serendipitous connection with Ellsworth marked the beginning
of a mutually beneficial business relationship. They fulfilled Ellsworth's desire
for unconventional advertising, and derived much personal satisfaction in the
process. With their sensational ads for additional products and by-products
came costly campaigns that eventually placed Calkins & Holden in financial
jeopardy. In an effort to remain solvent, they wrote Ellsworth to request that
he pay for space in advance of their advertising placement. Despite the fact
that they never heard from Ellsworth again, among many other experiences, Calkins
and Holden had the opportunity to handle the Force cereal account under his
employ (Calkins, 1924).
The Force breakfast cereal account represented one of Calkins and Holden's most
memorable campaigns (Kaul, 1994). Ellsworth's advertising manager, Hunter, purchased
a picture and rhyme from two girls representing the transformation of the character
Jim Dumps to Sunny Jim upon eating Force cereal. A campaign was launched based
on these characters, and advertised on billboards, in street cars, magazines
and newspapers (Calkins, 1924). Calkins wrote hundreds of jingles for the nationally
renowned Sunny Jim, and contracted the work of writers such as Oliver Herford
and Caroline Wells when the jingle well was dry. Interestingly, Ellsworth demanded
high quality printing. As a consequence, the Sunny Jim line drawings, which
reproduced poorly when newspaper printed, were initially drawn by the artist,
Sewell Collins in pencil. Then, a second artist, named Earl Horter, was contracted
to trace them over in ink, thus ensuring the desired quality of print reproduction
(Calkins, 1924). The following representation of one of these advertisements
is taken from Calkins (1946):
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A second significant campaign in the history
of Calkins & Holden was that developed for the Delaware, Lackawanna &
Western Railroad account. Calkins employed a similar strategy to that of the
Force campaign. As copywriter, he this time wrote numerous jingles describing
the cartoon character he developed, Phoebe Snow. Through his copy, the message
that the cars were cleaner due to the railroad's use of hard coal was conveyed
(Kaul, 1994, Advertising Age, 1964). Competing railroad locomotives burned
dirty soft coal that tended to soil passengers' clothes (Mayer, 1991).
Calkins' "Phoebe Snow" was adapted from the Lackawanna's car cards
depicting a girl in white whose dress was never dirtied with soot. Thus, she
was assigned a name, and an artist was commissioned to illustrate her. Calkins
employed the same onomatopoetic rhyme used in The Humorous Speaker's
'Riding on the Rail' to simulate train travel for his jingles. It is ironic
that an erudite Lackawanna officer complimented Calkins' use of the name Phoebe,
as his choice was made without regard for its psychological underpinnings. Calkins
was flattered that the name he chose instantaneously had so enamored the public.
Mayer (1991) notes that Calkins' character remarkably took on "a life of
its own." The following representation of one of these advertisements is
taken from Calkins and Holden (1912):
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