Coppertone is the brand name for an American sunscreen, owned by Merck, formerly Schering-Plough. Coppertone became famous in 1959 when it introduced the Coppertone girl. The Coppertone Girl was a young blond girl in pigtails staring over her shoulder in surprise as a Cocker Spaniel sneaks up behind her and partially pulls down her blue swimsuit bottom, revealing her buttocks which had a lighter skin tone than the rest of her body. Accompanying the ads was the impish slogan, “Don’t be a paleface!” which seemed to be left over from when the original Coppertone logo was the profile of an Indian chief.
The story goes that the inspiration for the Coppertone girl was Deborah Martin, who was the granddaughter of early Coppertone owner Charles E. Clowe. Clowe’s wife Sophia noticed that Martin’s training pants had slipped and exposed her bottom while poolside. She then remarked to her husband that such an image on a billboard would be more appealing to her than sexy girls. I would have to disagree but that’s just me.
In 1953 Tally Embry Advertising created the concept of the little girl and the puppy. An artist named Joyce Ballantyne Brand re-drew the little girl in 1959, using her daughter Cheri as her model, when the original artwork was destroyed in a fire.
A series of mechanical billboards were constructed across the United States. The billboards had the motorized dog rocked up and down perpetually yanking down the swimsuit bottoms. Though most of Coppertone Girl mechanical billboards are sadly long since gone or have stopped moving, one billboard of the Coppertone Girl still stands in Miami Beach with the dog, pigtails, swimsuit, and all. I remember one of these signs and the various non-mechanical billboards along the freeway while growing up in Southern California. I recall they always made me smile.
Have you ever seen the Coppertone Girl ads or billboards? Share your thoughts in the comments. Would love to hear from you.
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