One of my favorite restaurants in San Diego is Souplantation. What’s not to like about a place with an all-you-can-eat giant salad bar, soup bar, pasta bar, fruit bar and muffin bar? And a few other yummy things.

Souplantation used to hide the kid’s milk in small fridges next to the registers at the end of the salad bar line when you walk in. They’ve apparently rearranged their line and now you can just help yourself to the kids’ drinks, including the milk. And look how many bottles of milk they have, featuring one cow on each bottle!

Avalanche of cows – milk bottles at Souplantation

See the bottles of Heritage milk stacked up on top of each other, sitting on ice? Doesn’t this look like an avalanche waiting to happen? Don’t blink, you might miss it!

By the way, if you previously missed it, it’s worth taking a closer look at the Heritage milk cow. It’s pretty disturbing, as in “mutant” like.

The Yahoo purple cow

I was catching up on my LinkedIn newsfeed this weekend when I saw one of my connections recommending an article regarding Yahoo. What intrigued me was not the title of the article but the photo what stood next to it. Wow, is this a purple cow? Yes, it is! But why is it connected with an article on Yahoo?

So I clicked on the link (you can read the full article on working at Yahoo here) and that’s when I saw the large image of Yahoo’s purple cow (see above). Apparently if you work or visit Yahoo, you’re able to pose right by it for a picture. Nice!

Why the purple cow? Obviously the Yahoo founders read Seth Godin’s Purple Cow book and thought Yahoo should stand as the purple cow in the internet world.

I can only say one thing about this: Yamoo!

He’s right, I had to see it and now you’re seeing it too. I present you the cow giraffe!

Cow giraffe

Isn’t it cute? It came from a bag full of self-adhesive foam animal shapes similar to this one. It’s the only animal in the bag that looks this close to a cow.

By the way, if you’re curious to know what happens when you cross other animals together, I have one more for you. What happens when you cross a leopard and a cow? A leopard cow, of course! Courtesy of the Cow Parade people.

Leopard cow from the Cow Parade

Today’s cow is selling milk again. But not any milk. Horizon milk, which is organic (plain milk or chocolate milk flavor). It comes in a convenient package that doesn’t need refrigeration, so kids can pack it up in their lunch sacks when they go on a field trip. That, I get and I like.

The cow from the Horizon milk ad

But here’s my problem. At first glance, I thought the big Horizon milk cow was part of the art museum’s exhibit. Then I realized the kids were holding its ear and tail, walking in line, so I guess the cow is going on a field trip with them. Why is that? Are the kids supposed to milk the cow when they’re thirsty? What about the chocolate flavor? Do they pull a different udder for that?

I don’t know what you personally think about this ad, but it doesn’t do it for me. That cow is very cute by the way. I think it deserves its own spot in a museum. One day…

Today, our print ad cows are actually bulls. Huge bulls! Two of them. They’re telling me to watch a TV show called Big Rich Texas, which I’d never heard of until I saw this ad. It probably doesn’t help that I don’t watch TV.

Are you ready to see this ad? Warning: it’s a little disturbing, in several ways. 

The bulls of Big Rich Texas

Wow, did you see the bulls’ golden horns? That’s some shiny bull… Oh, and let’s not forget the golden nose ring. Very classy.

Did you notice the woman sitting on the bull is wearing leather? How about a cowhide outfit? Now THAT would have impressed me.

And that tagline, “You can’t keep the bull out of the country club”? I’ll admit that’s a little more catchy than the Over the Moon milk tagline (“believe”).

If you’ve ever watched Big Rich Texas, I want to hear what it’s like, so please share your comments below.

The way she moos

Wow!

Now that you’ve met your cow quota for today, hop over to Robin’s blog and her post on “Sentences that sing”. She features a really good sentence out of her upcoming novel. And no, the sentence doesn’t mention any cows. :-)

The cow in the over the moon milk ad

From what this ad tells me, Over the Moon milk is fat free and somehow amazingly rich. Have you ever tasted fat free milk? The last adjective I’d use to describe fat free milk is “rich”, so I’d think it needs quite a few additives to make it taste that way.

Over the Moon tell us this milk tastes so good, you’ll feel over the moon. Or maybe you’ll be able to jump over the moon after losing all that extra weight. I don’t know, what do you think? Either way, you’ve just got to BELIEVE. That’s what the tagline tells me. Hey, Over the Moon milk people, The Polar Express wants its tagline back.

To find the right visual clues for my board, I went through a lot of magazines. I had specific ideas of what to use for each goal I listed, and I managed to get the right images in the end. But I have to admit the process was long and tedious. What made it more enjoyable and surprising? The amount of magazine ads I found that featured cows!

So this week I’ll be highlighting the cows that sell you things. Have you ever noticed the selling power of cows? I’ve mentioned several times on this blog and I’m about to deliver you with a few more samples.

Today, I’m featuring an ad from the vegetarian food company Lightlife, which sells soy-based meat replacement foods (we love their hot dogs!). Lightlife is introducing a new line of veggie burger. Can you think of the best spokeperson for this new veggie burger? How about a veggie cow? It looks so good, I love it!

Veggie burger ad from Lightlife – the veggie cow

Purple cow brooch

There have been all sorts of cows on this blog but this is the very first cow brooch. Apparently, it’s not that unique because there are a lot of cow brooches out there. Who knew?

And look, it’s a purple cow, how special! Of course, it holds its special place among the other purple cows on this blog, including:

- Seth Godin’s Purple Cow
- The Milka cow (here too)
- A real purple cow

There you have it, a whole herd of purple cows. I can’t think of a better way to say goodbye to 2012 and welcome the new year.

Happy 2013, everyone!

This year, there was no runaway cow (at least that I know of) and no ugly cow sofa, but still plenty of memorable cows for 2012. They include my very own cow slippers, as well as a whole shelf of cow slippers I almost bought, skiing cows, cow artwork, the Skinny Cow, the American Flag cow, the cow from the Puss in Boots movie, the udder rings, the birthday balloon cow, the grossest birthday card cow, the cow flashlight, the bug-eyed cow, the hot air balloon cow and the lawn mowing / bulimic cow. Enjoy!