N.Z. BUTTER AND CHEESE

Evening Star, Issue 25619, 20 October 1945, Page 8

N.Z. BUTTER AND CHEESE

ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN IN BRITAIN DANISH CHALLENGE ACCEPTED (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 8 a.m.). LONDON, October 19. Approximately £3,000 is to be spent by the New Zealand Marketing Department in London on advertising New Zealand butter and cheese in the London even.ing newspapers and the provincial Press. Regarded as initial and modest, this "campaign" will start early in November and last about six or seven weeks, according to the avaialble newspaper space. Among the several reasons which influenced the department to embark on this advertising is the fact that Danish butter has re-entered the British market, that by the end of this year Denmark will have exported about 25,000 tons to Britain since her liberation, and that during 1946 it is estimated that the Danes will send 100.000 tons of butter here. The arrival of Danish butter has constituted " food news," with the result that appreciable publicity has been given to it by the nawspapers. One intention of the Marketing Department, therefore, is to place the name of New Zealand butter and cheese before the public again—the pooling system precluded this during the war—and to. remind the British public of tlie contribution made by the Dominion to their tables through the long days of rationing. RATION REMAINS UNCHANGED. The British weekly butter ration still remains at two ounces a person. It is regarded as being unlikely that the butter produced in this country and imported from New Zealand, Australia, Argentina, Sweden, and other sources will result in an increase in the ration, but there is a possibility that if Denmark's exports reach the estimated figure of 100,000 tons, then an increased ration may result. It .is true that the Danish butter sent to Britain since the liberation has not been of a quality which can be compared with its pre-war produce, but ,it is anticipated that the previous high standard will soon be recovered. The war-time practice of pooling all butters and selling them under the title of " national butter" is being continued, but when there will be a reversion to the publicising of brands is not known—it • may be before the end of rationing, but that is uncertain. The maximum price in the meantime remains the same at Is 8d a pound over the counter. The cheese ration here will shortly be increased by one ounce, so that each person will be entitled to three ounces a week. New Zealand, Canada, and America, are the chief suppliers of cheese, the distribution of which has been " easier" during the war than butter, and already it .is beginning to be sold again by brand—according to local retailers' judgment. The price is Is Id a pound. BUTTER BEFORE GUNS. The advertising campaign on which the Marketing Department has decided is simple and direct in theme. The slogan is "Your butter" and "Your cheese," linked with the name of New Zealand and the emblem of the silver fern. This, backed up w.ith comment such as: "New Zealand .has don* much to maintain the Home country's butter ration and also to supply the fighting fronts everywhere. Now it's butter before guns, and when you can choose freely again you may depend on New Zealand butter as vou did in the past. All the skill of h.ighclass butter making still goes into it " ; and'" Throughout all the difficulties and dangers of war large quantities of cheese came from New Zealand. Itich in all those qualities that good cheese (should possess, it helped to sustain the home front and the fighting forces everywhere." ,