100. UNCLE BOB FOR GLENDALE BUTTER, 1970

GLENDALE BUTTER--the better butter with the better taste, says Uncle Bob. Print Ad, 1970

In 1970, Procter and Gamble PMC launched GLENDALE Pure Fresh Butter, its response to the well-entrenched Anchor Butter, already the Philippines’ largest selling butter that was introduced way back in 1966. Procter & Gamble PMC was the current leader in margarine spreads, so it was no surprise that it forayed into the butter market.

A block of GLENDALE Pure Fresh Butter was made from one and a half gallons of fresh cow’s milk—a competitive advantage that it leveraged on in its print ad campaign. To help push the product, popular TV personality “Uncle Bob”—aka Robert Stewart—was tapped to endorse the new butter brand, appearing in full-page, full-color print ads in leading weekend magazines.

Robert Stewart arrived in the Philippines in 1943 as a United Press (UP) war correspondent. He stayed on after the war, having met Loreto Feliciano, a Kapampangan widow with 3 kids, whom he married. Robert started the Republic Broadcasting Republic Broadcasting System (RBS), DZBB, DZFF and DZXX. Loreto did the marketing for the stations, and eventually, they would also establish Channel 7 in the 1960s. He first appeared as “Uncle Bob” on 30 Oct. 1961, as a news anchor for “The News with Uncle Bob”.

He would retain the monicker  “Uncle Bob” when he became the host of the widely popular children’s show, “Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club”. It was the first live children’s TV show that was aired on Saturday morning, with Uncle Bob dishing out memorable catchphrases as "hot-diggity-dog" and expressions like "pum-pa-rum-pum".

A supporter of Pres, Garcia, he was threatened with deportation by the Macapagal government in 1961, but officials backed off when a deluge of letters from children expressing their support flooded Malacañang.

Photo from filipiknow.net

Stewart had other shows like “the Maestro & Uncle Bob” (with pianist Federico Elizalde) and “Uncle Bob & Friends” (with Joselito Pascual). Disillusioned by the Marcos government, he moved to the U.S., leaving his “Uncle Bob’s Lucky 7 Club” to his son Jody Stewart, till it ended in the late 1980s. 

The much-loved uncle to thousands of Flipino kids passed away  in Phoenix, Arizona on 6 April 6, 2006, and his remains were returned to the Philippines. and his remains were cremated before being returned to the Philippines on April 25.

As to the fate of GLENDALE Pure Fresh Butter, it remained on the market shelves for just a few years, unable to make a dent in the successful Anchor butter business. The “cream and sunshine butter” continues to dominate the butter segment of dairy spreads in the Philippines today.