Idaho Potato Commission kicks off 75th anniversary celebration

The overall theme of the Idaho Potato Commission’s promotional programs for the 2011 crop and the 2011-12 marketing season is the organization’s Diamond Jubilee.

The year 2012 is “the 75th anniversary of the Idaho Potato Commission, and everything we are doing” for the 2012 fiscal year that starts with the 2011 harvest “is tied to reinforcing that anniversary and promoting the strength of the [Idaho] brand,” said Frank Muir, who has been president of the commission for eight of its 75 years.

“We are launching [the year-long 75th anniversary celebration] with several major events,” one of which will be a yearlong 75th Anniversary Famous Idaho Potatoes Tour featuring a semi-truck with a flat-bed trailer carrying a giant replica of an Idaho spud.

Almost everyone has “seen post cards out of Idaho showing a giant potato on the back of a semi-truck,” Mr. Muir said. That image was the inspiration for the tour. The thought was that the commission could send everyone in the United States one of the post cards or, better yet, could “make it come to life” by building an oversized potato onto the back of a big rig and driving it all over the country for everyone to see.

“On this big truck, we will have a huge logo” that has been designed to mark the commission’s 75th anniversary, he said. It will also sport the logo of the new Famous Idaho Potato Bowl (which is being launched this year), the Heart Check Mark (which the American Heart Association has just recently approved for use on all Idaho potatoes), and also the logo for Meals on Wheels.

The 75th Anniversary Famous Idaho Potatoes Tour will officially launch on Dec. 17 at the inaugural game of the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl at Boise State University’s Bronco Stadium in Boise, ID.