Chesdale is a New Zealand brand of processed cheese. It is well known for its animated television advertising, with a jingle sung by two cartoon characters, Ches and Dale, wearing gumboots and black singlets.

Chesdale is produced by Fonterra and distributed widely in New Zealand supermarkets. The brand has been distributed internationally with varieties such as Chocolate Cheese being produced from 2005 for the Asian market, where Chesdale is worth $25 million per annum.[1][2]

Television advertisement edit

The advertisement was created by art director Don Couldrey and copywriter Robert Merlyn Jenkins in 1969. It is considered an example of Kiwiana, and has been semi-seriously proffered as an icon of New Zealand culture.[3][4]

References edit

  1. ^ "Fonterra takes big bite of Asian cheese market". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  2. ^ "Fonterra - An error occurred finding your page". fonterra.com. Archived from the original on 10 May 2012. Retrieved 26 May 2015.
  3. ^ From Zero to 360 degrees: Cultural Ownership in a Post-European Age Archived October 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine - Mane-Wheoki, Jonathan; University of Canterbury, International Council of Museums, Council for Education and Cultural Action Conference, New Zealand, via the Christchurch Art Gallery website. Accessed 2009-10-27.
  4. ^ Parliamentary Library archives have the transcript of a speech Mike Moore while he was Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, entitled 'Towards a New Zealand Identity' and delivered at the opening of Air Force Recording Studio, Auckland, August 1988; in which he said "I am reminded of a New Zealand Minister and a group of New Zealand Dairy Board delegates at a function in Ireland, after which the Irish sang their songs. When New Zealand's turn came, they looked embarrassed, sang a disjointed and inaccurate 'Pokarekare Ana', and then, inspired by a creative Dairy Board member, got up and sang the jingle 'We are the boys from down on the farm, we really know our cheese.'" - cited at Chesdale Cheese on folksong.org.nz website, viewed 2013-08-27

External links edit