Coppertone girl

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Original Coppertone ad.

One of the few remaining ads in existence, on the side of a building in Miami

Modern Coppertone girl icon

Coppertone is the brand name for an American sunscreen, owned by Schering-Plough HealthCare Products

It dates to 1944, when pharmacist Benjamin Green invented a lotion to darken tans. The company became famous in 1953 when it introduced the Coppertone girl, an advertisement showing a young blonde girl in pig-tail in shock as a Cocker Spaniel sneaks up behind her and pulls down her blue swimsuit bottoms, exposing her pale white buttocks in stark contrast with her tanned body. Accompanying the ads was the impish slogan, "Don't be a paleface!"

The original Coppertone logo was the profile of an Indian chief, but to become more politically correct, Tally Embry Advertising in Florida was hired and their ad men created the little girl and the pup.

The original artwork was lost in a fire and in 1959 an artist named Joyce Ballantyne Brand re- painted the illustration after a nationwide contest to find a new illustrator.

Joyce Ballantyne Brand recreated this iconic image, supposedly using her daughter Cheri as the model.^[1] Years Later, Jodie Foster made her acting debut as the Coppertone girl in a television commercial, when she was 3 years old.

In 1993, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the sunscreen, a pageant was held on the sandy beach of Disney's Polynesian Hotel in Orlando Florida to find "The Coppertone Girl", seeing as Cheri Brand had grown up well by then. The contest was hosted by Regis Philbin along with Cheri herself as one of the judges. The winner was picked based on the contestant's maturity, congeniality, eloquence, confidence, and how well she resembled the cartoon. After several long hours of the competition the winner, 4yr old Alexis Durgee of Boca Raton, FL, was finally chosen out of twenty remaining finalists. She was immediately chauffeured to NYC for the Sally Jessy Raphael Show with Cheri Brand and Dalton Orband, the winning Coppertone Boy. Alexis went on to model for Coppertone & Water Babies ads through the following year and was shot in several Coppertone commercials. Though no longer with company, a large mechanical billboard of the then Coppertone Girl still stands in Miami Beach; dog, pigtails, speedo, and all.^[2]

At the turn of the 21st century, Coppertone revised drawings of the Coppertone Girl so that they would be less revealing in an era of heightened sensitivity regarding pedophilia. Some recent versions show only the girl's lower back, as opposed to her buttocks or wearing a T-shirt, a hat, and holding a bottle of Coppertone while the puppy is shown pulling on her shirt.