Chesdale is a
New Zealand brand of processed cheese. It is well known for its animated television advertising, with a jingle sung by two cartoon characters, Ches and Dale, wearing
gumboots and black singlets.
Chesdale is produced by
Fonterra and distributed widely in New Zealand
supermarkets. The brand has been distributed internationally with varieties such as Chocolate Cheese being produced from 2005 for the Asian market, where Chesdale is worth $25 million
per annum.[1][2]
Television advertisement
The advertisement was created by art director Don Couldrey and copywriter Robert Merlyn Jenkins in 1969. It is considered an example of
Kiwiana, and has been semi-seriously proffered as an icon of New Zealand culture.[3][4]
^Parliamentary Library archives have the transcript of a speech
Mike Moore while he was Minister of Overseas Trade and Marketing, entitled 'Towards a New Zealand Identity' and delivered at the opening of Air Force Recording Studio, Auckland, August 1988; in which he said "I am reminded of a New Zealand Minister and a group of
New Zealand Dairy Board delegates at a function in Ireland, after which the Irish sang their songs. When New Zealand's turn came, they looked embarrassed, sang a disjointed and inaccurate '
Pokarekare Ana', and then, inspired by a creative Dairy Board member, got up and sang the jingle 'We are the boys from down on the farm, we really know our cheese.'" - cited at
Chesdale Cheese on folksong.org.nz website, viewed 2013-08-27