My Very First Blog!
Hello, and welcome to my very first foray into the world of blogging! I am excited to take this step in the social media revolution and share with you my thoughts and passion for the dairy industry. Thank you for joining me; it should be a fun adventure.
Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Marcus Benedetti, I am the President and CEO of Clover Stornetta Farms. Clover has been around for over 33 years and has been fortunate enough to grow significantly during that time. Those of you who reside or have spent time in the San Francisco Bay Area may know us best for Clo the Cow, our resident mascot.
Clo is a special cow who has graced our billboards, trucks and packages in numerous, humorous positions (my first rhyme via blog!). We have built a name for Clo using puns in our advertising. Some of my favorites are “Clo White and the Seven Quarts,” “Micloangelo,” and “The Sound of Moosic.” In today’s post I would like to explore the origin of Clo and her popular billboards.
In 1968 my grandfather, “Pops” (perhaps better known as the founder of Clover), Gene Benedetti, met and became friends with a local character and “ad man” named Lee Levinger. Pops said Lee’s mind was always going; he was full of enthusiasm and had a great sense of humor. It occurred to Lee one day that he wanted to tell a story about Clover using billboards. Pops thought he was crazy, since Marin County had just banned billboards, but was eventually won over by Lee’s charisma and conviction. In 1969, Clo the Cow was born.
Pops and Lee would often meet for lunch and a couple of drinks to discuss ad strategy. Shortly after the second martini the creative juices would begin to flow quite nicely. Pops recalled these meetings fondly and always emphasized how they were full of laughter, dice and some good business talk. These lunches were the origin of the now famous Clo puns. One of the original billboards is the following:
The word “love” is present in our name, but we also operate with love in our hearts. Clover Stornetta Farms was the first dairy company in North America to be recognized and certified for our humane treatment of our cows by the American Humane Association (AHC). Furthermore, we spread the love by paying our family farms a premium to produce such excellent products, as well as giving back to the communities we serve.
It is this love for cows, communities and family farms, as well as our consumers love for our products, that allows us to continue creating excellent products year after year.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I am looking forward to continuing to share the Clover story with you in the coming months and years!
