The missing kids milk carton campaign started in Iowa

Linh Ta | The Des Moines Register

The grainy images of boys and girls sat beside Americans during breakfast time for much of the 1980s.

Before Facebook, Amber Alerts and text messages, pictures on milk cartons were a way to distribute information about missing kids.

It made sense at the time. Most Americans drank milk and the cartons had a frequent turn-around from grocery store to fridge.

It was also a grassroots campaign with deep Iowa ties.

Among the first cartons to be distributed in the grocery stores were from Anderson Erickson; they featured the black and white images of Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin — two Des Moines Register newspaper carriers.

From there, the missing kids milk carton campaign grew. Dairies across the nation participated, and missing kids across the nation became a part of Americans' routines.

Were they effective?

Not so much, said Robert Lowery, vice president of the missing children's division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

More: Johnny Gosch: An Iowa kidnapping that helped change the nation

"The milk cartons are generally sitting at the table, and usually it's kids sitting there. We needed to get it in front of adults," Lowery said.

Even though the campaign was short-lived and mostly ended by the late 1980s, the cartons are still a prominent image for people thinking about missing kids.

"We were frightening children," Lowery said. "While it was a worthwhile program, it didn’t last for long."

At the Iowa State Fair this summer, a milk carton with Gosch and Martin's images was on display for fairgoers to remember.

Marty Warrick, 53, of Des Moines, vividly remember the cartons. Both he and his mother worked for Anderson Erickson at the time the boys were kidnapped.

"It's scary. It was something," Warrick said. "You always hear abut missing kids, but you don't know about it until it's in your own backyard."

Milk carton campaign timeline

Sept. 5, 1982: Johnny Gosch, 12, goes missing while delivering newspapers.

Aug. 12, 1984: Eugene Martin, 13, goes missing while delivering newspapers.

September 1984: Anderson Erickson Dairy in Des Moines begins to run photos and short bios of Johnny and Eugene on the sides of half-gallon milk cartons. One week after AE launches the project, Prairie Farms Dairy, also in Des Moines, decides to do the same.

November 1984: Walter Woodbury, vice president of Hawthorne Mellody Dairy in Whitewater, Wisconsin, sees one of Anderson Erickson's cartons while on a trip to Iowa, and presents the idea the Chicago Police Department's youth division.

November/December 1984: Steven Glazer, chief of staff for California state assemblyman (and future governor) Gray Davis, reads a newspaper article about Chicago's upcoming milk carton program and talks Davis into promoting it as a statewide program. Glazer contacts dairies around the state, and dozens sign up.

January 1985: Chicago's first "missing-children milk cartons" appear with an estimated reach of roughly 2 million cartons every month. The Chicago launch draws national attention on "Good Morning America," "Today," and the "CBS Morning News" and from the Associated Press.

January 1985: The milk carton program kicks off in California, appearing on tens of millions of milk cartons every month. The National Child Safety Council announces its own "Missing Children Milk Carton Program" with 100 dairies already signed up.

March 1985: More than 700 dairies are now involved, and 1.5 billion milk cartons with images of missing kids are distributed nationwide.

April 1985: The National Child Safety Council announces that reported sightings of missing children has increased by more than 30 percent.

Source: Jody Ewing, founder of Iowa Cold Cases website