Elsie the Cow is a cartoon cow developed as a mascot for the Borden Dairy Company in 1936 to symbolize the "perfect dairy product". Since the demise of Borden Dairy in the mid-1990s, the character has continued to be used in the same capacity for the company's partial successor, Eagle Brand, owned by The J.M. Smucker Company.
History with the Macy's Parade[]
Elsie Jumps Over the Moon (1955)[]
Elsie the Cow made her Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade debut in 1955 with a new float titled Elsie Jumps Over The Moon which takes inspiration from the classic nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle. The float was retired after its inaugural appearance.
Balloon (1963-1967)[]
Eight years later, Elsie would make her balloon debut in the 1963 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, alongside Dino the Dinosaur from the Sinclair Oil Corporation. The balloon shows Elsie, a 12-foot paper maché figurine made by Bliss Displays, riding a trapeze attached to a 27-foot balloon.
As the balloon was created to coincide with the 1964 New York World's Fair, the flowery reef designs on the balloon contain the the message "See You at the Fair, Elsie" in black text on a white circle. The message represented the Borden Company's sponsorship of the Fair, where Elsie had her own area at the event complete with a real cow. This was retained in 1964.
In 1965, after the conclusion of the world's fair, the balloon was slightly altered with the messages now spelling out different Christmas messages in red text—"Merry Christmas, Elsie", "Season's Greetings, Elsie" and "Happy New Year, Elsie".
The balloon was retired following the 1967 Parade after making five appearances, and the figure of Elsie the Cow was given to Borden shortly afterwards. The balloon part has been recycled for various other parade balloons, being recycled into Smile (1971), the hot air balloon of the Alvin and the Chipmunks falloon (1986), and Babar (1991).