Sometime back we discovered this old pamphlet from White Baking Company. We don’t know anything about White Baking Company, or even the year that this pamphlet is from.

However, it is from an era when American businesses helped teach history and interesting facts to the public, while also promoting their products, something that you don’t see much of any more. In fact, if you search through old phone books or Internet sites, you’ll soon discover how many great American businesses, large and small, no longer exist.

Many others seem to have forgotten their own company history, or don’t care, or fail to share some of that nostalgia with the next generation. Wouldn’t it be neat if some of them, other than for special anniversaries, would share some of their packaging of yesteryear on their current product or products? This came to mind the other day as I was looking at a box of Frosted Cheerios. On the back of the box it said, “Cheerios was launched in 1941 as the first ready-to-eat oat cereal. Today, we offer many delicious flavors.” Here’s where I believe that they missed the bowl. They could have taught their customers a little history by telling them that Cherrios was originally named CheeriOats and they could have shown an image of the first box of the cereal. They could even have explained why the name was changed. Now that would have been a history lesson!

In the case of White Baking Company, on the reverse of their full color brochure the company showed a color image of the Lightship Nantucket LV112 and gave a brief history of the vessel. This was part of their series called “Wonder Ships of the World.” Kids, as well as adults, could clip the photo and the text and paste them into an album that was provided by White Baking Company. They also did this with other various historic sites and locations. Every week they had a new brochure, which must have been quite an undertaking to distribute, especially in the days when the company made home delivery, just like the milkman once used to do. But, while promoting their products, they were also teaching important history to the public.

It seems to me that today’s advertising gurus could learn a lot from the marketers of old and really provide meaningful information as well as sell their products.

Can you image if a company, such as General Mills, would promote lighthouses and their importance in American history on the boxes of Cheerios or any one of their other cereal products? The impact would be tremendous! Also, without promoting one lighthouse group over the other, they could also encourage people to join the lighthouse group of their choice in their own area, or one of the national lighthouse groups. My guess is that the lighthouse preservation movement would never be the same. How many lighthouses would be restored because of it? How many endowment funds would be created to preserve many lighthouses into the future? Finally, lighthouses would get the national attention and exposure they deserve.

Yikes! I just woke up. I seem to recall something about boxes of cereal and lighthouses.

I guess it’s time for breakfast. I wonder what’s on the back of that new box of Cheerios that I bought yesterday.