During the mid 1970's the Unigate Dairy came up with an amazing advertising campaign to promote their range of milk. It was based on an army of red and white striped straws that turned up when you weren't looking and stole your milk. An imaginative slogan "Watch out..Watch out there's a Humphrey about" became an overnight catchphrase. Several television adverts were produced, usually featuring semi-famous people of the era such as Arthur Mullard. Unigate also saw fit to produce merchandise for the public to purchase. These ranged from clothing and bags to glasses, mugs and stickers. All of which could be bought from your milkman or via mail away promotions. Also produced was a set of three sealed Humphrey straws containing powdered milkshake which you threw in a glass and mixed with milk. My mum got me some of these and they nearly made me puke. Nice !!!! If you have any of the merchandise that is not already featured on this page, mail us an image of it and we'll feature it along with a credit to yourself.
The images you see on this page are of some of the merchandise that Hubbard Media Group has been able to obtain from various sources. The sheet of stickers is believed to be the second range available. I seem to remember a sticker on my lunch box at junior school showing 4 Humphries bent in the alphanumeric phrase RU12. This must have been from the first set of stickers. This page by rights should be in the Advertisement break section of this site but we feel that the Humphrey ad campaign went way beyond advertising and should have its own special page in the main part of the site. Several emails were sent to the Unigate website (before they were bought out by Dairy Crest) asking for information with regards to this ad campaign. No reply was ever received. This is a shame as this was probably one of Unigate's finest moments. Were you a Unigate milkman during the time of this campaign? We want to publish your story. How did it affect you? Were you mobbed by spotty little herberts clamouring for stickers? Was your milk round made longer due to the interest? Send us an email. A scan is available here of the 1st sticker sheet which has been digitally remastered to remove the ageing of the original. You can print off your own copy onto a sheet of self adhesive paper from your colour printer and relive those heady days covering your binders, school books and lunch boxes with Humphrey stickers. Your friends (if they are old enough) will be amazed, so remember to tell them where you got them. Funnily enough the reverse of our sticker sheet is a mail away offer to join the Humphrey Club. Stranger still is that the address is in Leigh on Sea, Essex, which is just round the corner from Hubbard Media Group centre of operations. The second sheet of stickers comes courtesy of Totalretro who resides on eBay. HMG spotted this sheet of stickers for sale and asked him for a scan. Totalretro was only too happy to oblige.10 house points to you chap!!!! There is also a print of the offer on the reverse of the sticker sheet. Pete Williams mailed us with a couple of pics of these Sneakers complete with pom poms for creeping about. Not a sticker sheet I remember but you can download a printable version here to make up your own. And finally, the third sheet, and this is the one I remember having as a kid with the infamous RU12 sticker. This came courtesy of Craig Cummings who sent it to me the other day along with a load of other Humphrey stuff which will appear here soon. as with the previous sticker sheets a printable one can be blagged here for you to amaze your friends. Nice one Craig ! You da man ! Stranger still was the mail we got from someone called Richie Humphrey (is that REALLY your name?) with a couple of Humphrey mug shots and amazingly a Humphrey wristwatch. Apparently these fine timepieces were given to milkmen as an incentive to sell the products. Can anyone beat that????? Click on any of the images below to view a larger version.
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