New Gerber Baby Contest Announced: Is Your Child The Next Spokesmodel?
Is your child the cutest baby in the world – so much so that he or she deserves to be the “spokesbaby” for Gerber Baby Food? Now is your chance to find out, as the company has announced the details of this year’s contest.
As the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel reports, the Nestlé-owned brand began the contest for its 2019 honoree on October 1, and it runs through October 20. To enter your baby in the contest, all you have to do is post a picture of him or her on Instagram, and tag it with the hashtag #GerberPhotoSearch2018.
The winner will be named as the company’s “Spokesbaby” through 2019 and will appear on the brand’s social media accounts, according to Gerber president and chief executive officer Bill Partyka.
“Every year, for our annual Photo Search, we choose the baby who exemplifies Gerber’s long-standing heritage of recognizing that every baby is a Gerber baby.”
The winner will also win $50,000 (full contest details, including the rules, can be found here).
Since 2012, the brand of baby-nutrition products has held an annual contest for a new spokesbaby. The first winner, who was the face of the 2013 campaign, was Mary Jane Montoya. As People reported at the time, the Fresno, California, lass was chosen out of 300,000 other entrants who vied for the honor via a Facebook contest. Her parents put the money into a college fund for her.
La nueva bebé Gerber es latina, su nombre es Mary Jane Montoya. Su rostro reemplazará al de Ann Turner Cook. pic.twitter.com/3KQKbE8D
— ¡HOLA! Colombia (@hola_col) November 7, 2012
Last year’s winner, Lucas Warren of Georgia, was the first baby with Down Syndrome to win the honor.
The original Gerber baby – now 91 – meets Gerber's 2018 spokesbaby, Lucas Warren, posing together in an adorable photo. https://t.co/mJXZxxkAyu pic.twitter.com/R2GEcMammZ
— ABC News (@ABC) June 7, 2018
At this point, it bears noting that whichever baby wins, his or her face will only appear on publicity for the brand and on its social media channels. He or she will not have their face plastered on Gerber products. That honor – a charcoal drawing of a baby produced in 1928 by artist Dorothy Hope Smith – will remain on Gerber products, likely until the end of all time.
In case you were wondering, the baby who inspired that drawing is now a 92-year-old woman named Ann Turner Cook. Cook’s dad, you see, was comics artist Leslie Cook, and the family was neighbors with another artist, the aforementioned Dorothy Hope Smith. When she was 5-months-old, Ann was drawn by her neighbor, who in turn submitted it to Gerber when the company announced it was looking for a model to be on its packaging. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Turner grew up to be a mystery novelist. At first, she eschewed the publicity surrounding her famous image, but now she is more open to talking about it.
