Elsie the Cow

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Elsie the Borden Cow is the advertising mascot of the Borden Company, now primarily used to promote the Dairy Farmers of America's Borden cheese products.

Borden was named after Gail Borden, Jr. (1801-1874), philanthropist, businessman, and inventor, who was the first to develop a commercial method of condensing milk, and the dairy company founded by him (renamed Borden, Inc., in 1968) expanded and diversified to become a sizable corporation operating in many areas of business.

Elsie was created in the 1930s to symbolize the Perfect Dairy Product and made a live appearance at the New York World's Fair in 1939. She also starred in a movie, RKO's Little Men, in 1940. For a time in the mid-1940s when she was voiced by Hope Emerson, she was better known than some human celebrities, and she remains among the most recognizable product logos in the United States and Canada. A live cow representing Elsie appeared on stage at the Borden's exhibit in the Better Living Pavilion at the 1964-65 New York world's Fair, in a musical revue with a score by the Broadway composer Kay Swift.

Her husband is Elmer the Bull, who was later loaned to Borden's chemical division as the mascot for Elmer's Glue. Their offspring included Beulah, Beauregard (born 1948), and twins Larabee and Lobelia (born 1957). The first Elsie, "You'll do Lobelia," is from the Walker Gordon Dairy Farm in Plainsboro Township, New Jersey.