Sunday, September 6, 2015

red: condensed milk


We didn't open the can this way, Mum made two holes at opposite sides of the round surface. Without Mum's knowledge, some times, we sucked the milk out straight from the holes. Mum would wonder why the milk went so fast. We didn't have much lollies then.


I was a Nestle's Condensed milk child known in Sarawak as an Ang Gee Gu Nee Child. Mum said no wonder I was a fat baby with the sugar in my milk.

This company marketed their product so aggressively to the third world that many mothers stopped breast feeding. Babies were fed with powder mixed with contaminated water. I boycotted this and am glad I am in New Zealand where there is a choice.

In the mid 1965s, there were on the reverse side of the tin paper, there were fish pictures. The salesman gave the wrong impression that the completed album can be exchanged for something. All the kids were pestering their mothers to buy the milk and swapping the paper. There was always a couple of fish that was not available. So the mothers had to buy more.

Then the salesman said, the final thing was the complete album. The kids enjoyed collecting the pictures.

You can imagine how angry the mothers were.








1 comment:

Sandi said...

"This company marketed their product so aggressively to the third world that many mothers stopped breast feeding. Babies were fed with powder mixed with contaminated water."

That is criminal!

I hope that now people stop that practice. Imagine...those women trusted the companies, but what a mistake that was.