246. Hunt for the Best: HUNT’S PORK & BEANS, 1958-1970 Ads

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS PRINT AD, 1970

HUNT’S, a name associated in the Philippines with Pork and Beans, began as the Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co., in Sebastopol, California, founded by brothers Joseph and William Hunt. It originally was a canning company that canned fruit and vegetables from California farms, but by 1941, it was into canned soups, fruits, vegetables and juices.

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, CATSUP AND FRUIT COCKTAIL Omnibus Ad, 1958

In 1943, Norton Simon's Val Vita Food Products of Fullerton, California merged with the packing company, and the new business was incorporated as Hunt Food and Industries, Inc.  It also streamlined its operation by focusing on canned tomato products.

In fact, the first HUNT’S products that were distributed in the Philippines in the mid 1950s were HUNT’S Tomato Sauce, HUNT’S Tomato Catsup and HUNT’S Pork & Beans. HUNT’S Fruit Cocktail  was the only fruit-based canned product it sold here in the Philippines 1957. The print advertising carried the famous slogan “Hunt-- for the best”, which would be used for many years.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, PRINT AD, 1960

In 1956, a group of businessmen formed a company known as the Pure Foods Corporation, which manufactured processed meats and food products under the Pure Foods brand name. Ayala Corporation acquired substantial shares in the company in 1965. It also acquired the right to manufacture HUNT’S Pork & Beans, made from high quality Great Northern Beans and real pork bits covered in rich, thick, sweet tomato sauce. It was distributed by Atkins, Kroll & Co. Inc., along with HUNT’S Tomato Sauce and Catsup, but HUNT’S Pork & Beans would remain its best seller and flagship brand.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BANS, 1960

HUNT’S Pork & Beans became a sort of a favorite “emergency food”,  as it was affordable and could be eaten straight from the can. It had very little competition in its time, so it became the country’s largest-selling canned pork and beans for many years.

But the decades that followed saw major changes with the mother company, HUNT’S Food and Industries Inc. In 1960, it merged with Wesson Oil & Snowdrift Co. to become Hunt-Wesson Foods.  A series of mergers happened in through the 80s, until Hunt-Wesson, the company which included the Hunt's brands, was sold in 1990 to ConAgra Foods, a leading packaged food company of North America.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, 1960

Meanwhile, Pure Foods dropped HUNT’S as it began making its own brand of pork & beans in the early 1980s. Around 1984, Universal Robina Corp, came to an agreement with ConAgra Foods to manufacture and market HUNT’S Pork and Beans  in the Philippines under this 50-50 joint venture.

 

HUNT'S PORK & BEANS, PRINT AD 1969

More recently, in May 2017, Century Pacific Food, Inc., the country’s canned food-producing leader,  acquired the Philippine license  for HUNT’S Pork and Beans, from the URC group. The deal includes the right to manufacture, sell and distribute Hunt’s branded products in the Philippines from Hunt’s-URC. HUNT’S Pork & Beans continue to lord over the ready-to-eat canned beans product category, with a commanding 86% share of the market.

SOURCES:

 Hunt's-Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunt%27s

234. Brand Stories: BLEND 45 of Consolidated Food Corp., 1963-1984

THE VERY FIRST PRINT AD OF BLEND 45, launched in 1962, as a price brand.

The Consolidated Food Corporation (CFC) was founded in 1961 by John Gokongwei Jr., and, after surveying the local coffee landscape, decided that there was room more for new coffee brands. The market leader then was the post-war brand Café Puro of Commonwealth Foods Inc., which, by 1951, had become the no.1 selling coffee brand, a position it kept till the 1960s.

BLEND 45 IN WINDSOR CRYSTAL PARTY GLASSES PROMO, 1967

Consolidated Foods’ first coffee brand was Presto, launched in 1962. But it was the second locally-made soluble coffee brand that made a major dent in the 1960s coffee market” : BLEND 45. It was so named as a cup of mixed coffee contains at least “45 choice coffee beans”.

BY 1968, BLEND 45 WAS THE NATION'S LARGEST SELLING COFFEE.

Filipinos took to the aroma and distinctive flavor of BLEND 45, but what made it really popular and attractive to consumers was its cheap price, much less than the regular coffee then available. At 3 centavos per cup, BLEND 45’s grew and became known as “poor man’s coffee”—in a good way.

BLEND 45 IS SO AFFORDBALE, YOU CAN DRINK IT DAY AND NIGHT!

As Mr. Gokongwei recalls in an interview, “The price was very good, and the product was very good. So we had good pricing, good product, and good presentation,”

BLEND 45, PERFECT FOR AFTER LUNCH.

In just 2 years after its launch, BLEND 45 overtook Café Puro and rose to become the largest-selling coffee brand in the Philippines (Presto was discontinued, but the Presto trademark was kept and reserved for the chocolate line of CFC).

EDDIE RODRIGUEZ, DRAMA ACTOR, FOR BLEND 45, 1973

BLEND 45’s advertising peaked during the 1970s and 1980s, employing the most credible and popular endorsers of that period: Eddie Rodriguez, Boots Anson-Roa,Ariel Ureta, and Susan Roces. Its unique selling proposition was set into a catchy jingle to remind coffee lovers of the “45 choice coffee beans in a cup of BLEND 45”.

BOOTS ANSON AND PETE ROA, CELEBRITY COUPLE, FOR BLEND 45, 1981.

The success of BLEND 45 paved the way for another successful CFC coffee brand—Great Taste Coffee—its first soluble granule coffee.

SUSAN ROCES, QUEEN OF PHILIPPINE MOVIES, FOR BLEND 45, 1984.
Photo: www.susanroces.blogspot.com

Today, the brand--as well as its success—endures. BLEND 45 is still sold at a price every Filipino can afford. Now, as part of the Universal Robina Corp.’s beverage portfolio, BLEND 45 even has a single-serve instant coffee pack and a 3-in-1 sachet at popular prices of P1.50 and P4.00  in sari-sari stores.

WATCH BLEND 45'S "SUSAN ROCES" TVC 1984

The product’s taste appeal  has been made more attractive with such as new flavor innovations as BLEND 45 Kondensada, Pula, Barako. Gokongwei’s vision to see a Pinoy brand on the breakfast table of every Filipino, has been achieved—with BLEND 45.

CREDITS:
BLEND 45 TVC 1984:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv4Nao3oo38, posted by Dateline Anime, 13 Sep. 2017.
SUSAN ROCES Blend 45 Ad: www.susanroces.blogspot.com

194. WHEN COLGATE WAS A SOAP BAR, AND HUNT’S WAS CANNED FRUIT COCKTAIL…

Just the mention of iconic brand names like COLGATE, PALMOLIVE, or PUREFOODS instantly conjure images of the products they represent: Toothpaste, Shampoo, Meat Products, respectively. But at one point in their brand history, the names were also applied by their companies to other products, now long gone. Here are some of them.

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1. COLGATE SOAP (1956)

Since its launch as a toothpaste brand in 1873, COLGATE has, at one point, become a generic name for toothpaste. It was the first to be packaged in tubes in 1896. Colgate is associated with oral hygiene with products like mouthwashes, toothbrushes, and dental floss. COLGATE Toothpaste was introduced in the Philippines in 1926 by the Palmolive Co, Philippines, which, in 1949, became Colgate-Palmolive Philippines.  Palmolive was known for its soap, so this is probably the reason that in 1956, COLGATE SOAP was introduced to the Philippine market. The idea didn’t catch on—maybe it conjured images of brushing your mouth with soap!

2. HUNT’S FRUIT COCKTAIL (1957)

HUNT’S is an iconic brand name, founded ay back in 1888 in California. It is well-known as a maker of preserved tomato products like sauce, paste, expanding into tomato-based pork and beans—which has become synonymous with the name. HUNT’S Pork and Beans is known by almost every Filipino in the 1950s as it was a staple “emergency” canned product. Not very many know that there was also a HUNT’S FRUIT COCKTAIL introduced in the Philippine in 1957. That’s because the original company, Hunt Bros. Fruit Packing Co.,(founded by Joseph and William Hunt) also canned fruits and vegetables, a business which boomed in California. The product did not really do well locally.

3. LADY’S CHOICE VIENNA SAUSAGE (1965)

California Manufacturing Company (CMC) was established in 1955, and immediately became well-known for its line of spreads that included jams and mayonnaise. LADY’S CHOICE was one of the company’s early brand successes in the Spreads Market. The first products were LADY’S CHOICE Jelly, Preserves, Mayonnaise, and by 1965, the line had expanded to include other food products like macaroni, spaghetti, and of all products—LADY’S CHOICE VIENNA SAUSAGE! Eventually, the canned sausages were phased out after CMC realized that the spreads (Mayonaisse, Salad Dressing, Sandwich Spread) were the Lady’s Choice brands that were bringing in the money. Unilever bought the company, along with Bestfoods in 2000.

4. PALMOLIVE POMADE (1955)

The world was introduced to PALMOLIVE in 1898, when the B. J. Johnson Soap Co., gave us a soap bar made of palm an olive oil, hence the brand name that endures to this day. PALMOLIVE Soap was known to Filipinos in the late 1920s when it was distributed in the Philippines by Palmolive Co. Phils. The soap brand even became more familiar after the merger with Colgate,  and  the PALMOLIVE line was soon extended to include talcum powder, shampoo, and male-oriented products. In the mid 1950s, the company launched PALMOLIVE POMADE—“the pomade for successful men”. There was also, briefly a PALMOLIVE  Skin and Hair Tonic, produced at the same time. Apparently, the brilliantine pomade and tonic did not last long, but PALMOLIVE as a soap and shampoo brand proved to be more enduring.

5. POND’S LIPS LIPSTICK (1960)

POND’S, has a rich, 150 year history as the maker of POND’S  Cold Cream, the world’s first moisturizer that does not require refrigeration, and POND’S Vanishing Cream, which made women’s skin soft, supple and dewy. In 1846, American pharmacist Theron Pond developed the Pond’s Extract, with a unique tea extract from witch hazel that helped restore skin damage below the surface. The face creams were introduced to the country when the POND’S Company merged in 1955 with the Chesebrough Manufacturing Co., which already had an extensive line-up of facial care products. By the 60s, POND’S was an established brand of cosmetic beauty products. An effort to extend the line to include make up products was attempted in 1960 with the launch of POND’S LIPS—lipsticks “for irresistible lips”. But  Filipinas resisted the idea, preferring the facial cream more instead,  so POND’S LIPS was discontinued.

6. PRESTO COFFEE (1962)

The taipan George Gokongwei founded the Consolidated Food Corporation in 1961. It is best known for producing Blend 45 that gave Nescafe and Café Puro a run for their money. Next, CFC launched its chocolate products, so the PRESTO brand. With treats like Nips, Manor House, Milky Bar, Apollo Chocolate Bars and Wafrets, PRESTO came to be associated with chocolates. There was even a PRESTO Cocoa and PRESTO Chocolate Drink. But PRESTO did not start as a name for chocolates—but as a coffee brand. In 1962, PRESTO COFFEE was launched by CFC as a complement to Blend 45. PRESTO COFFEE was retired when CFC decided to single-mindedly build the Blend 45 brand which was enjoying tremendous  market success, and make it their flagship brand. PRESTO later was used as a name for CFC’s ice cream brand, and today, it is acookie brand of Universal Robina Corp. (URC).

7. PURE FOODS JAM (1965)

Founded in 1956, PURE FOODS was put up in Mandaluyong by a group of enterpreneurs which first produced hams, bacons and hot dog sausages.  It is in the manufacture of quality meat products that PURE FOODS built its name. Over the years, however, it forayed into other food products—making catsup, chili con carne, bottled pickles—and in 1965, the company put out PURE FOODS JAMS. The bottled spreads included Mango, Pineapple, Guava, and Mango-Pineapple. Eventually, PURE FOODS stuck to making products it knew best, and today, it is the leading maker of quality meat products in the country.

113. The Modern Fast-Frozen Ice Cream: PRESTO ICE CREAM ADS, 1978-1979

 

PRESTO ICE CREAM. Flavorite for July, Print Ad, 1979

In the 1970s, Magnolia Dairy Products pretty much lorded it over the Philippine ice cream market, but there were a few more players that dared challenge the leader. Some of these included the 60s brand Silver Bell, the scoop ice cream station Coney Island, and Selecta Ice Cream which was sold in limited quantities in supermarkets.

Then, in 1975, Consolidated Food Corporation owned by the taipan John Gokongwei, ventured into ice cream production and introduced PRESTO ICE CREAM, which, to Magnolia, loomed as a serious contender to deal with. After all, Gokongwei  had a history of aggressively marketing its products that found favor in the Philippine marketplace.

Beginning in 1954, when he put up Universal Robina Corporation which launched snack items like Jack ‘n Jill, candies like Nips, Maxx, Dynamite, and noodles, like Nissin’s. Gokongwei wanted to diversify like what multinational companies were doing, and so in 1961, he put up  Consolidated Food Corporation which produced two initial successes—Blend 45 and Great Taste Coffee,  brands that at one point soundly beat Café Puro and Nescafe,

CFC had used the brand name PRESTO earlier, in the late1960s, for its chocolate snacks. Now it wanted to capitalize on that already-familiar name by calling its newest ice cream product--PRESTO ICE CREAM. It  was directly aimed at Magnolia, but with a twist—it was significantly cheaper than the ice cream leader. “Anything you’ve always wanted in an ice cream, for less!”, the colored print ads bannered.

 

What more could you want in an ice cream? Dec. 1979

To Magnolia’s well-entrenched “Flavor of The Month”, PRESTO responded with “Presto Flavorites for the Month”, and during special times like the Christmas holidays,  not one, but two “flavorites” were launched. 

PRESTO, too, had counterpart products for Magnolia’s Frozen Delights—a line of ice cream novelties.  PRESTO Funwich—two chocolate cookies with ice cream in between-- attained popularity in the late 1970s, and so did PRESTO Tivoli Ice Cream Choco Bars, Funsticks, Heaven in a Bar and Calypso Cream Bars.

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Made with the modern 'Fast-Freeze' Process, 1979

PRESTO ICE CREAM touted its modern “Fast-Freeze” process of manufacturing ice cream. Fast-frozen ice cream means ice cream at the peak-of-freshness.  At its height, PRESTO even lent its name to the Gokongwei-owned basketball team, that played in PBA from the 70s thru the 90s –the PRESTO Ice Cream Makers.

WATCH 'PRESTO' 1980 TVC HERE

(Courtesy: View on the 3rd)

Despite the initial hoopla and the millions spent in pushing the brand, PRESTO could not make significant inroads into Magnolia’s turf. Magnolia countered with the price brand Sorbetes, but even then, by the late 1980s, the rising cost of materials started to affect the local ice cream industry. CFC stopped its PRESTO Ice Cream production altogether by the mid 1990s, as the ice cream landscape changed when RFM bought the Selecta brand and turned it into a market leader, overtaking Magnolia by 1997, this, despite a joint venture by Nestle. 

Today, PRESTO  still exists in the URC porfolio—but only as a cream cookie brand, under the “Jack and Jill” line. With its demise, PRESTO  Ice Cream joins other discontinued Gokongwei product ventures like Yahoo Juice Drinks, Robina Chickens and Mark Electronics.

SOURCES:

Unilever website: https://www.unilever.com.ph/brands/our-brands/selecta.html

Universal Robina Corp. website:http://www2.urc.com.ph/
youtube, Presto ice Cream TVC 1980, published by John Castillo Soberano, My 7, 2017