All Eyes on the New Creation

In 1904—just two years after Jell-O launched a wildly successful national advertising campaign that made it a household name—two former Jell-O executives shuttled thirty miles down the road to Rochester, New York, to try their own hand at the gelatin business. footnote They formed the D-Zerta Food Company, and debuted with a full lineup of puddings, ice cream powders, and "perfect" jelly desserts in a range of flavors. Their advertising attempted to appeal to the busy and discerning housewife; in the brochure featured here, they promised the "quickest of quick desserts," as well as "the most delicious, nourishing and appetizing pudding dessert ever placed on the table."

But perhaps the product couldn't live up to expectations, or maybe the company simply ran out of money, but the product was short-lived. By 1909, the number of D-Zerta newspaper advertisements plummeted, and the company prepared to sell its assets. footnote They somewhat rallied a few years later, with a new factory and an updated advertising plan, footnote but by 1923 they had not only sold the factory, footnote but the company itself. The Genesee Pure Food Company, which produced Jell-O, purchased D-Zerta and seemingly scrapped everything but the name. While the original D-Zerta Jelly Powder was 85% cane sugar, footnote the updated formula was saccharine-based and sugar-free, to appeal to new post-World War I beauty standards that favored slender figures.