For 20 years I carried on a love affair with a chubby-cheeked cutie with pointed ears and big teeth. Her name is Clo, the affable bovine who is everyone's favorite cow. Clo sprang from the pen of Bill Nellor, an art director for Lee Levinger's Santa Rosa ad agency, in 1968. This early rendition looked more like a real cow than the one we know and love today. She wasn't particularly appealing, so in 1969 Bill revised her into a cartoon character that has survived with minor changes for 30 years. Bill left the agency in 1970, replaced by Chris Alderman at the drawing board.

I bought the ad agency from Lee in 1972, although Lee stayed on to work with Clover for several more years. With Mike Fitzpatrick now doing the artwork, boards such as "Clearly ahead," featuring an inflated likeness of Clo's head bursting through the panel, appeared on Highway 101. For two decades I abandoned conscience to come up with the most outrageous puns I could devise or steal, starting with "Clo's line."

Through the years an outstanding succession of artists have worked on the Clo billboards, including Jim Wakeman, Bill Knight, Craig Curtis, Susan Evason, David Oshiro, Lynn Morgan, Gordon Cockroft and Anne Vernon.

I would like to pontificate about the studies, surveys, blind tastings, copy testing and focus group interviews that contributed to developing a complex marketing strategy for Clover. Unfortunately, because ad men are noted for their humility and candor, I can't. The Clover campaign is based on a couple of obvious points: the client produces an excellent product, and the advertising for something as basic as milk should be kept simple.

Clover advertising in the '50's and early '60's concentrated on building a local image for the dairy — "Aren't you glad you live in Clover Country," featuring scenes of happy young families enjoying Clover Milk in such settings as the redwoods or aboard a Russian River canoe. With the advent of Clo in 1969 this theme became "Support your local cow" and "Local girl makes good," highlighted by the broadly smiling cartoon cow.

Clo was created as a mascot to represent the company, to project a warm, friendly, down home feeling for the dairy and to generate loyalty for its products. That she has succeeded over the last three decades is indicated by the fact that early on she wore a bell around her neck labeled "Clo," so people would know who she was. It would be difficult to find a person in the area today who couldn't identify her. She was chosen one year to be Grand Marshal of Santa Rosa's Rose Parade, and in 1995, the Sonoma County Museum put on a special exhibition tracing her career.

After the "local" boards came a series in a lighter vein, such as "The Producer," with Clo attired as a Hollywood mogul, complete with dark glasses; "Factory Fresh," with Clo sporting a smokestack; and "The Now Cow," with Clo decked out in psychedelic colors.

The infamous puns came next, starting with "Outstanding in her field" and " Clearly ahead." Two of the favorites came from a 1989 contest for billboard ideas—announced in a message on a milk carton—that attracted 7,481 entries. Top winner, with "Tip Clo through your two lips," was Ally Minatta of Sonoma. Second Place, for "Splendor in the glass," went to Helen Vanderbilt of San Anselmo.

Clo has not been limited to billboards. She shows up in newspaper and magazine ads, school yearbooks and football programs, radio commercials, and an award-winning series of television spots that combined live action with animation to bring three of the billboards to life. A dozen years ago the ad agency embarked on a major redesign project that now features Clo on the packaging for the full line of Clover Stornetta products. And the agency designed an eight-foot, inflatable, walk-around figure of Clo, which appears in parades, store openings and civic events of all kinds. In addition to their roadside locations, the billboards get wide circulation by being painted on the sides of Clover's fleet of trucks.

Through the years the Clover billboards have won a wide array of advertising industry awards, local, national and international. The most prestigious recognition came in 1991 when the agency won the top award in the billboard campaign category of the International Advertising Festival of New York, which attracted 3,790 entries from 40 countries. The three boards submitted were "Supreme Quart," with Clo in judicial robes; "Half Galleon," with Clo at sea in pirate garb; and "Splendor in the Glass," with Clo in a flower-filled meadow. Runners-up to the Clover entry were campaigns for Volkswagen, produced by DDB Needham Worldwide of Detroit, and British Aerospace, produced by Austin Knight Advertising Limited of London.

How long can this lighthearted ad campaign go on? As long as Clo continues to bring smiles to the faces of her fans, young and old, and as long as they continue to enjoy the milk lovingly produced by this amiable bovine. There are still plenty of delicious puns in the barrel, eager to burst forth for the amusement of Clo's friends.

August 13, 1999