In 1971 Scali, McCabe Scoves placed chicken mogul Frank Perdue on a high perch with the TV tag line “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken,” which put Perdue Farm on the map, and raised their assets from mere chicken feed to corporate cock of the roost.
Yet before that the chicken industry was just pecking away on the fringes of industrial farming. As funny as their advertising seemed in the 20s and 30s, it was no yoke. The ads here egged the farmers on to make better birds using healthy chicks. In fact, organic feeds were fairly common back then. It wasn’t until after World War II that chemicals and drugs invaded the hen house and changed the entire pecking order.
For more Steven Heller, check out Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility, one of the many Heller titles available at MyDesignShop.com.