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| 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.
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| 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:
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.
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| 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 2nd 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,
Chernobyl: Poisoning the Third World,
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.