Why Milk Cartons Became a Tool for Finding Missing Children — And Did It Help?

Children tragically go missing regularly. Trying to find anyone that is missing can be a mammoth task.

Therefore, it makes sense to try and use any medium possible to raise awareness of missing children.

One famous example involved using Milk Cartons to publicise cases of missing children. The faces of missing children would be printed on milk cartons around the United States. Other countries followed suit.

Over time, milk cartons became a widely-used tool to try and find missing children. But did it work? In this article, we look into this campaign.

When did Milk Cartons first get used as a tool for missing children?

In the 1970s, high-profile disappearances of children in the United States gained substantial media attention.

Parents became increasingly worried and distrust became prevalent in and around neighbourhoods across the US.

Cases were frequently reported on in the media. Trying to raise awareness of these disappearances in such a large country was difficult.

Yet in 1984, a new idea commenced – using milk cartons to raise awareness of missing children. The idea was pioneered by Iowa-based Anderson Erickson Dairy.

Beginning in 1984, the company started printing the photos of missing children on their milk cartons. These cartons would be distributed to huge numbers of people. It became a clever way of raising awareness.

The name of the child, details of their appearance and other information was on there. Details on how to alert the authorities of any information was also listed.

The first two children to feature were boys from Iowa – both of whom had vanished while delivering newspapers. They were Johnny Gosch and Eugene Martin. We have profiled Gosch’s disappearance on this website.

Over the next couple of years, this practice became common across the United States. Photos of missing children were being viewed by millions of people.

The ‘Milk Carton Kids’

For a few years, the printing of missing children’s faces on milk cartons became the norm.

Hundreds of children were featured on milk cartons. These children became known as the ‘Milk Carton Kids’.

Those three words became synonymous with missing children and were a common saying in the US for several years.

Other countries also adopted the practice, with a whole generation of people around the world growing up aware of ‘milk carton kids’.

As part of the wider impact of these cases came the idea of ‘stranger danger’. This idea has been used for decades now and serves as a reminder to children of the importance of being vigilant around strangers.

Did it work?

In recent years, it has been debated how effective using milk cartons as a tool for finding missing children really was.

At the very least, it raised awareness of missing children. It helped to create discussion and conversation too around a topic that was often ignored due to its sensitivity.

It isn’t known exactly how many children were saved due to the milk cartons. The highest profile case was that of Bonnie Lohman.

Lohman was abducted from her father’s care by her mother and stepfather. Her father managed to get Lohman’s face onto a milk carton.

In an incredible twist, Lohman saw herself on a milk carton. Soon enough, she was returned to her father – with this being a significant success story.

It is likely that other cases existed too, but these haven’t been heavily publicized. However, it wasn’t a case that there have been hundreds of success stories – admittedly they were few and far between.

As many children on the cartons had been missing for several years, their appearances would’ve changed significantly, making them outdated.

But as mentioned above, it did solve at least one case, and was able to significantly raise awareness of missing children.

One non-tangible benefit is the idea that as the campaign coincided with ‘stranger danger’ – this may have actually saved many children from abduction due to enhanced vigilance around strangers.

Then there is also the possibility that it may have put off some people from actually carrying out abductions, though this may not be accurate.

Why was there criticism?

Criticism was also levelled at the apparent lack of racial diversity of the children on the cartons. There was criticism of the lack of black children being emblazoned onto the cartons.

Moreover, this feeds into the wider idea of what has been called ‘Missing White Woman Syndrome‘, This is the suggestion that the disappearances of white women gain far more media attention compared to those affecting men or those from ethnic minorities. We have an article on this topic.

There was also concern that young children would be frightened by the appearance of missing children, and lead them to become increasingly scared that they would be abducted.

Finally, there was also the suggestion that companies had actually engaged in this practice for cynical reasons – namely the opportunity to get tax breaks due to the charitable action of printing missing children.

When did milk cartons stop being used for missing children?

By the late 1980s, the practice was decreasing. This was hastened by the change from paper milk cartons to plastic milk cartons.

Then by 1996, the practice became largely defunct due to an improved and more rapid way of raising awareness of emergencies – AMBER alerts.

In 1996, AMBER Alerts were introduced. These were emergency alerts to make the public aware of an abducted or missing child.

Originally, these alerts were made through the radio, TV, and text messages. Nowadays, with more technology being available, these alerts reach people almost instantly.

Over the following years milk cartons were used sparingly for raising awareness of missing children, though they were occasionally used.

Summary

The use of milk cartons to raise awareness of missing children was certainly a good idea. It is fair to say that it had an overall positive impact.

This approach has been replaced with more modern technology nowadays, but it certainly played its part in the past.