The California Raisin Advisory Board (or CALRAB) was a

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

state marketing commission based in

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

that was created in the mid-1900s to coordinate the regulation and promotion of the state's

raisin A raisin is a Dried fruit, dried grape. Raisins are produced in many regions of the world and may be eaten raw or used in cooking, baking, and brewing. In the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and South Afri ...

crop. The group became most noted from 1986 to 1994 for developing an international advertising campaign using The California Raisins

claymation Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...

characters. The California Raisin campaign was funded by an initial grant of US$3 million from the

United States Department of Agriculture The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is an executive department of the United States federal government that aims to meet the needs of commercial farming and livestock food production, promotes agricultural trade and producti ...

. Although popular with the public, the California Raisin campaign eventually failed because its production cost the raisin growers almost twice their earnings. CALRAB was closed on July 31, 1994, after the success of the campaign had triggered a

vicious cycle A vicious circle (or cycle) is a complex chain of events that reinforces itself through a feedback loop, with detrimental results. It is a system with no tendency toward equilibrium (social, economic, ecological, etc.), at least in the short ...

: because it was a nonprofit organization and could not profit from the California Raisins, CALRAB chose to divert earnings from the campaign to fund more advertisements, thereby increasing costs until members revolted. Following the board's collapse, the California Raisins became (intellectual) property of the state of California. In 1998, the California Raisin Marketing Board, funded by raisin growers, was established to replace CALRAB as the promotional organization for the raisin crop.

References

External links

California Raisin Marketing Board website
Raisins Agriculture in California Agricultural marketing organizations Agricultural organizations based in the United States Defunct organizations based in California Organizations based in Fresno, California 1900s establishments in California 1998 disestablishments in California Government agencies established in the 1900s Organizations disestablished in 1998 Agricultural marketing in the United States The California Raisins {{US-org-stub