farmdoc's blog post number 515

Bert Appleroth. I’ll bet you’ve never heard of him. But for sure you know the brand he created. This timeline tells us Appleroth was a tram conductor who in 1927 first made jelly crystals in his bathtub using gelatine and sugar. He and Albert Lenertz formed a company in 1926. At that time planes were new and exciting, so aviation fan Appleroth named the brand Aeroplane Jelly. In the 1930s he delivered his jelly to rural areas in a plane. Around that time the Aeroplane Jelly jingle, composed by Lenertz, debuted. Appleroth’s publicity stunts and Aeroplane Jelly’s advertising campaigns made the jelly a national icon. In 1942 Bertie the Aeroplane – named after Appleroth – became the Jelly’s mascot. In 1966, the jingle was recorded in several languages, placing it among the nation’s first advertising campaigns targeting ethnic groups. One of the longest running, and best known and loved, Australian jingles. In 2008 it was added to the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia registry. Hear it here. I was moved to write the post after reading this. Me? ‘I like Aeroplane Jelly, Aeroplane Jelly for me.’ In 1953 Aeroplane introduced Australia’s first low calorie jelly. That’s the one I like. But strawberry – the best-selling flavour throughout Aeroplane Jelly’s history – isn’t in Aeroplane’s low calorie range. Ho hum.