157. BIRCH TREE MILK POWDER: Pre-Chernobyl Years (1969-1979)

BIRCH TREE PRINT AD, 1979.

BIRCH TREE MILK POWDER was a milk brand manufactured by Veghel-Holland Dairy, and distributed in the Philippines beginning in the late 1960s. It came in attractive cans showing a Holstein-Friesian cow grazing in an idyllic field dotted with—what else?—birch trees.

The powdered milk slowly build up its market as it began advertising in 1967, with rather generic ads, but showing foreign talents. The fact that it was imported from Europe was a plus, but what made it even more attractive was its affordable price, lower than rising leader  Nido. 

BIRCH TREE early Print Ad, 1969

By the late 70s, BIRCH TREE gained over other powdered milk brands and became a market leader. Its once-generic advertising became sharper as it strategically capitalized on its affordability. Hence, it was a  tasty, healthy milk that everyone can drink. This became the basis of its mid 1980s campaign--BIRCH TREE “It's Everybody’s Milk".

WATCH BIRCH TREE"EVERYBODY'S MILK"

1985  TVC HERE:

 

Birch Tree TVC 1985 version 2: uploaded by alanchan80, 

Nov. 3, 2015, via Mr. Jojo Devera of JDTV/Magsine Tayo Channel.

BIRCH TREE TV ads, many produced on videotape, lorded over the airwaves in the 1980s, featuring foreign imagery from Europe, including windmills and talking Holstein-Friesian cows. The brand even utilized popular TV host and radio announcer Helen Vela, superimposed on moving pictures of Holland, “the milk capital of the world”.

WATCH BIRCH TREE "HELEN VELA" 

1985 TVC HERE:

Birch Tree TVC featuring Helen Vela: uploaded by alanchan80,

 Nov. 1, 2015 via Mr. Jojo Devera of JDTV/Magsne Tayo Channel.

But then, in April 1986, the catastrophic Chernobyl incident happened, in which a fire set ablaze a nuclear power plant, resulting in a radioactive fallout that drifted  drifted over large parts of Soviet Union—including Europe.  The accident severely affected the dairy business of Europe—Holland included---as the grazing lands of cows were contaminated with radioactive particles.

Two months later, 39 containers of BIRCH TREE powdered milk and 4,000 cartons of Dutch Lady milk arrived in the Philippines. Though they shipment came with  armed safety certificates, tests conducted by the Philippine Atomic Energy Commission show the milk products to have high levels of radioactive substances—5 times the level of allowable contamination.

Thus, Health Minister Alfredo Bengzon ordered the recall of BIRCH TREE Milk Powder from the market. That would signal the downfall of the milk brand, and for some time, people shied away from BIRCH TREE. The campaign that touted the Dutch origin of the milk brand only added salt to injury.

BIRCH TREE PRINT AD, 1974.

As years passed, and as the Chernobyl incident was becoming a distant memory, efforts to revive the brand began with a TV commercial that reminded people that “you can’t put a good milk down”. BIRCH TREE loyalists continued to patronize the brand after the dust had cleared and the ban was lifted.

It took Century Pacific Food Inc. (CPFI), the Filipino food conglomerate founded in 1978 by Ricardo S. Po Sr., to revive the milk brand in 2001. It is currently manufactured by its business unit, the Snow Mountain Dairy Corporation, a business unit belonging to the Century Pacific Group of Companies, which, by 2008 became the 2^nd largest liquid milk company in the country. It is hoped that BIRCH TREE will once again reclaim its place in the Philippine market as one of the leading players in the category, now that it is already manufactured locally.

SOURCES:.

Radioactive Dutch Milk Is Recalled - tribunedigital-chicagotribune,

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1986-09-06/news/8603060590_1_milk-products-radioactive-contamination

Chernobyl: Poisoning the Third World,

http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1987/09/updates.html

Century Pacific Foods, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Pacific_Food

Birch Tree TVC 1985 version 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOU7ZWdlbI4, uploaded by alanchan80, Nov. 3, 2015, via Mr. Jojo Devera of JDTV/Magsine Tayo Channel.
Birch Tree TVC featuring Helen Vela: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-J6Wa1watE, uploaded by alanchan80, Nov. 1, 2015 via Mr. Jojo Devera of JDTV/Magsne Tayo Channel.