We’ve had a bit of snow and ice here in the Northeast of late, so there’s a container of rock salt inside my apartment building. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the manufacturer was the Morton company. What with their association with salt and all.
I looked at the label and thought, “Oh, that’s clever, they’ve altered the trademark logo so the little girl is spilling salt on the sidewalk in inclement weather.”
Well, color me ignorant, but apparently that’s been the corporate logo all along. Because I have a lot of free time, I went to the Morton website, and learned she’s been that way—with just a few alterations—since 1914. And the concept has nothing to do with melting ice. In a bygone era, salt that would flow freely in damp weather was kind of a big deal. It was the iPhone 3G of its day. Hence their slogan, “When it rains, it pours.”
I suppose I’m glad I never really looked at the Morton girl before. As a kid in Northern California, knowing nothing of icy streets, I would’ve just thought, “That sassy little girl is a litterbug! Somebody call Woodsy the owl and that crying Indian.” And as an adult, I haven’t really given salt very much thought. I never read that book about it. And I think I only purchased salt once in my life, probably in 1992. I was earning very little money at the time, and always made note of products that were absurdly cheap, such as salt and matches. (I guess you can’t charge too much for anything that’s given away free in fast-food joints or bars.)
And while I’m in the supermarket: You know what would be good cross-promotion? The Morton girl and the Gorton’s fisherman:
Whether you’re a girl in yellow with a big umbrella
Or you wear a yellow slicker and are an old fella
Fishsticks are better when they’re salty
And the cost for the seasoning sure is paltry.
Morton and Gorton’s, hooray!
That one’s on me, Mad Men.
Jack Silbert, curator