Spry triplets once featured in advertising for famed Liga biscuits

Baby and toddler food brand turns 80

HELVOIRT, the Netherlands - Although they cannot remember a thing about their early and only foray into the limelight, three local women as babies once featured prominently in an advertising campaign for a new brand of babyfood. Only recently did the now 78-year old triplets see their own pictures, which in 1925 adorned promotional flyers for the now famed Liga nutritional biscuits. These had been developed two years earlier.

Veronie, Tiny and Lenie van Dijk were seven months old when their father wrote a letter to the makers of Liga in nearby Bergen op Zoom. He extolled the virtue of the biscuits which his triple offspring had been fed since they were four months old. Liga, which easily could be made into pap as well, was - and still is - a staple nutritional food in most Dutch households with baby’s or toddlers.

The makers of Liga recognized the possibilities of using the triplets in their advertising campaign. Twice, a photo of the Van Dijk triplets - now likely the oldest-living female triplets in the Netherlands - adorned flyers for the wellknown red packages of Liga. For his cooperation, father Van Dijk received a year-long supply of the babyfood.

The ads featuring the Van Dijk triplets are part of an exhibit about the famed baby food, now seen in a number of regional museums. Titled Liga progressive in food, the exhibit (and a commemorative book) ties in with the 80th anniversary of the biscuit.