This cup is an Elsie the Cow® coupon or box-top premium, a prize used to incentivize purchase. Elsie the Cow® was created as a mascot for Borden Dairy Company in 1936. Borden Dairy Company was started in 1857 in Connecticut by Gail Borden, Jr. to sell condensed milk. Before the company closed in the 1990s, the company had expanded into various types of milk and food products, as well as household items as glue and plastics. In the mid-1990s, Borden’s was sold to a competitor which eventually became part of the J. M. Smucker Company where products with the Borden name and Elsie image are still sold today (2014).
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