Nestlé - Retro Birds of the Caribbean

All hands up…if you remember

Thirty years ago, Nestle created a charming promotion which targeted young bird enthusiasts in Trinidad and Tobago by using the underpart of their label to highlight birds of the West Indies. What was annoying was how difficult it was to remove the label from the can of condense milk and it seemed much stronger than Elmer’s contact cement. There was also the likelihood that the precious colour illustrations like the Scarlet Ibis, one of the National birds of the Trinidad and Tobago would tear if you were not too careful trying to peel it off.

Just removing it was a hassle and some enthusiasts resorted to damping or steaming the label so it gently lift from the tin. At the end of this long process, the objective was to get the entire collection of birds which ranged from the Blue Gray Tanager to the Blue Crowned Motmot and to stick them into the accompanying book that gave further details of each specimen.



There was also the possibility of finding the same bird under the tin’s label and this would encourage you to sweeten your Milo a bit more to use up the Nestlé milk. Parents everywhere were coerced into buying tins upon tins of Nestle so that their children could finish their books. Labels would traded or bartered with other friends all in the hope to fill the book with the complete collection which today artists use as a reference to the vast bird life that populates these Caribbean islands.