CEO Marilyn Knox said there is ‘little doubt’ that Mrs. Cook’s face played an instrumental role in the company’s success.
‘You don’t even have to have the word Gerber on it. That face is honored as we’re doing the best for our child,’ she explained.
Indeed, the drawing adorns a flag at the company headquarters in Fremont, Michigan, and is etched in stone near the main entrance to the building.
Gerber kept Mrs. Cook’s identity a secret until 1978, allowing myths to circulate that the sketch depicted Humphrey Bogart as a baby or Elizabeth Taylor.
Fame: The Gerber baby’s identity was kept secret from the public, but Mrs. Cook knew from the age of three. ‘Mother pointed out the baby food jar and said that was my picture, and I thought it was quite a lovely thing!’
Mascot: In 1931, Gerber trademarked the picture, and in the 1950s they paid her a lump sum – ‘enough to make a down payment on a modest house and to buy the first car,’ she says – for her role in the company.
But Mrs. Cook was aware of the fact from a very young age. ‘I probably was about three years old when Mother pointed out the baby food jar and said that was my picture, and I thought it was quite a lovely thing!’ she laughed.
‘You don’t even have to have the word, Gerber. That face is honored as doing the best for our child’
As she got older, her family came to associate her with the baby food brand as well. ‘My own children would to go to a grocery store and they would point to a Gerber baby food and they’d say, “That’s my mother’s picture!”‘ to whoever was walking by!’ she recalled.
‘And, you know, I didn’t know whether to stop and explain, ’cause it’s kind of a complicated story, or just kind of grin and goes on!’
Enduring influence: These days, Mrs. Cook’s face still appears on Gerber products.
These days, Mrs. Cook’s face still appears on Gerber products, and she continues to do her bit to represent the company.
Most recently she helped conduct a contest in 2012 to find yet another Gerber baby, who would appear in a short series of ads for the company in 2013.
The winner was eight-month-old Mary Jane Montoya, from Fresno, California, who beat out 300,000 other hopefuls in the nationwide photo contest.
‘She is just adorable, and she is a delightful little person,’ Mrs. Cook told Today.
Credits: dailymail.co.uk