Thanks to the tireless efforts of California citrus advertiser Albert Lasker in the 1920s, the parents of the baby boomers were the first generation to grow up drinking orange juice.
Albert Lasker and executive with Lord & Thomas in Chicago and a virtual icon in the advertising world, he was credited with making orange juice a staple on every breakfast table in America.
Taking the California Fruit Growers Exchange for a client, he conceived of the idea of popularizing orange juice as a drink and made Vitamin C a household word.
Beginning in 1914, the Sunkist co-op in California established orange juice stands throughout the country and encouraged soda fountains, restaurants, and hotels to put the beverage on their menus. Sunkist distributed leaflets on how boys could set up orange juice or lemonade stands.
In 1916, Claude Hopkins wrote one of the most famous Sunkist ads; it headlined, ‘Drink an Orange’. The copy explained that orange juice was ‘a delicious beverage – healthfulness itself’.
Largely as a result of such advertising and promotion, millions of Americans became convinced that their health depended on drinking a glass of orange juice at breakfast every day.
By 1929 the Sunkist cooperative almost doubled its promotion and print advertisement promoted orange juice at breakfast and the use of lemon juice and lemonade the rest of the day.
Early history of orange juice for breakfast
