sarah jane {is} ladida creative

Beautiful sunflowers {my favorite}, courtesy of the Beau! (Taken with instagram)

Sweet! My Clean & Proper/ personal business cards arrived today, and my C&P mousepads! (Taken with instagram)

Awhile back I posted about Smyth Jewelers and their ad campaign featuring some illustrated characters. I mentioned how the little characters reminded me of a 1950s cartoon. A reader posted a comment about the history of the characters, because the same character is also the icon for Utz Quality Foods, Inc. and National Bohemian Beer (Natty Boh). First of all, my apologies. I spend more time in DC than Baltimore and I’m more of a dessert junkie than chips (though I am hooked on the UTZ Kettle Corn) so I didn’t do my full research. Sorry everyone!

So it turns out those two characters in the Smyth Jewelers campaign were the “Utz girl” and the Natty Boh icon. They even had a wedding ceremony in 2011 at Power Plant Live! in Baltimore, organized by MGH the ad firm who created the billboards for Smyth Jewelers back in 2007.

In November 1921 Bill and Salie Utz founded Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips. They lived in Hanover, Pennsylvania and began by making the chips out of their home and distributing their product to local grocery stores and farmers’ markets in the Baltimore and Hanover markets. The symbol of Utz originally started out as a girl with a flapper-inspired hair bob and big red bow. She is shown with one hand reaching into an Utz potato chip bag. In 1987 the icon of the girl became more rounded, simplified and with a younger look.

Even though Utz is headquartered in Hanover, it has remained a prominent symbol in Baltimore. Natty Boh was originally brewed in Baltimore by the National Brewing Company, but has since been moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is brewed by the G. Heileman Brewing Co. The beer was first brewed in 1885 and in the 1960s it became the “official” beer of Baltimore when the president of National Brewing Company also owned the Baltimore Orioles.

It’s one-eyed mascot, Mr. Boh, sports a handlebar mustache and was first introduced in 1936. The mascot was retired in the early 1960s, but has since reappeared as the unofficial city mascot for Baltimore. The Mr. Boh neon signs sits on top of its former home at the National Brewery building in the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood of Baltimore.

Brands should tell a story and that story should be consistent in its ad messaging. I may not have recognized the significance of the Smyth Jewelers campaign series, but there was something special that drew me to the billboards. More than I enjoyed the billboards, I enjoyed rediscovering the magic of Smyth and Natty Boh and the significance of “Where Baltimore Gets Engaged.”

P.S. my mother informed me that Smyth is much better that Kay Jewelers or Jared. My apologies to Smyth!

Twitter: @utzgirl

Tumblr: #Natty Boh, #Mr. Boh #Smyth #utz

Almost time for futbol! (Taken with instagram)