Coppertone is the brand name for an American sunscreen, owned by Schering-Plough HealthCare Products. Coppertone is the sister brand to Bain de Soleil, which is targeted to adult females.
It dates to 1944, when pharmacist Benjamin Green invented a lotion to darken tans. The company became famous in 1953 when it introduced the Coppertone girl, an advertisement showing a young blond girl in pigtails staring in surprise as a Cocker Spaniel sneaks up behind her and pulls down her blue swimsuit bottoms, exposing her pale white buttocks in stark contrast with her tanned body. Accompanying the ads was the impish slogan, "Don't be a paleface!"
The original Coppertone logo was the profile of an Indian chief. In 1959 Tally Embry Advertising in Florida was hired, and their ad men created the concept of the little girl and the pup. An artist named Joyce Ballantyne Brand, then working for Grant Advertising in New York, was hired to turn the ad agency's stick figure concept into an illustration. She purportedly used her daughter, Cheri, as the model.[1] When the original artwork was destroyed in a fire soon thereafter, Coppertone once again hired Brand to recreate the illustration. A series of mechanical billboards was constructed across the United States, whereon the motorized dog and swimsuit bottoms rocked up and down perpetually. Though most of them are long since gone or have stopped moving, one such billboard of the then Coppertone Girl still stands in Miami Beach — dog, pigtails, swimsuit, and all.[2] About 1965, Jodie Foster made her acting debut as the Coppertone girl in a television commercial, when she was three years old.
In 1993, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the sunscreen, a pageant was held on the sandy beach of Disney's Polynesian Hotel in Orlando Florida to find "The Coppertone Girl", since Cheri Brand had grown up by then. The contest was hosted by Regis Philbin along with Cheri as one of the judges. The winner was picked based on the contestant's maturity, congeniality, eloquence, confidence, and how well she resembled the cartoon. After several long hours of the competition the winner, four-year-old Alexis Durgee of Boca Raton, Florida, was finally chosen out of twenty remaining finalists. She was immediately chauffeured to New York City for the Sally Jessy Raphael Show with Cheri Brand and Dalton Orband, the winning Coppertone Boy. Alexis went on to model for Coppertone and Water Babies advertisements through the following year and was shot in several Coppertone commercials.
At the turn of the 21st century, Coppertone revised drawings of the Coppertone Girl so that they would be less revealing in an era of heightened sensitivity regarding pedophilia. Some recent versions show only the girl's lower back, as opposed to her buttocks, or wearing a T-shirt, a hat, and holding a bottle of Coppertone while the puppy is shown pulling on her shirt.
Parodies
The image has been frequently parodied, often using older female models duplicating the pose for a pin-up effect.
 Carmen Electra parodying the Coppertone girl |
 Lois Griffin (Family Guy) parodying the Coppertone girl |
 Sticker art featuring an ATAT in Chicago |
References
- ^ NYT Staff (May 18, 2006), "Joyce B. Brand, Commercial Artist, Dies at 88", New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/18/business/media/18brand.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
- ^ [1], Alexis Durgee & Dalton Orband named Coppertone boy and girl.
External links
- "Official website". Coppertone. http://www.coppertone.com. Retrieved February 7 2005. Showing image of Coppertone Girl in logo
- "Real Florida: Red-faced with the Coppertone Girl". St. Petersburg Times. 2004-09-05. http://www.sptimes.com/2004/09/05/Floridian/Real_Florida__Red_fac.shtml. Retrieved 2004-09-06. Interview with Joyce Ballantyne Brand
- "Sun Screening: It's The Little Miss Coppertone". Seattle Times. 1993-07-03. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930704&slug=1709409. Retrieved 2000-07-08. Article on chosen Coppertone Girl (Alexis Durgee) and Boy (Dalton Orband) promo winners
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