Turning Point
During 1984, a series of unrelated events inspired the Anderson Erickson Dairy to print the first milk cartons containing pictures and information about missing children. Other dairies across the nation followed suit until it became a nationwide campaign.
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Student phone interview with Barbara Huggett
Director of Research and Development for the National Child Safety Council, on how the idea to start the Milk Carton campaign sparked
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Interview with James Erickson, chairman of the Anderson Erickson dairy company, on how he stared the Milk Carton campaign. |
Late 1980s interview with Walter Woodbury, vice-President of the Hawthorn Mellody dairy company, on why he joined the Milk Carton campaign.
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"Publicizing missing children on milk cartons began in Des Moines last autumn as part of a so-far unsuccessful search for two missing newsboys. On Jan. 1, Hawthorn Mellody Inc., a Whitewater, Wis., dairy, began putting pictures on milk cartons distributed in northern Illinois. Other dairies across the country have followed suit." |
By 1985, 700 of the nation’s 18,000 independent dairies had integrated the missing children ads into their milk cartons. This not only spread information on a national level, but also inspired Congress to hold hearings on the problem of missing children, which ultimately led to the creation of the National Crime Investigation Center computers, which saves and disseminates information nationwide.
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Loosely organized, the dairies followed simple criteria, making it possible for numerous kids to have their chance to be on the breakfast table:
"Their pictures will run on the milk cartons for several weeks. Afterward, their faces will be replaced by others. Thousands of children are reported missing each year. As Joe Mayo said there are four criteria to determine whose photos will be used: if foul play is suspected, if the child has been missing for more than two months, if the abduction is believed to be family related-related, if the child is under 13." The program benefited from the use of the milk cartons both because of "their short shelf life" and because every home in America had milk (Easton). The U.S. Justice Department lent its support by creating a hotline for information about missing children: 1-800-THE-LOST.
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Personal interview with John E. Bischoff III
Executive Director, Missing Children Division National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, summarizing the influence of the Milk Carton campaign
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