Master Chef Coffee ‘FREE! 250 Trading Stamps of Your Choice’ — El Nuevo Heraldo, 31 August 1961
Consumer-facing Master Chef Coffee display ad placed in the Brownsville Spanish-language daily El Nuevo Heraldo on the same day that the trade-press story about Hoffmann-Hayman’s “appreciation certificate” program ran in the Victoria Advocate (HH-CLIP-1961-0005). The ad copy is in English — the certificate graphic, the chef-with-coffee-cup mascot, the headline “FREE!” and the body promising “250 TRADING STAMPS OF YOUR CHOICE ” (with the asterisk footnote “OR CASH REFUND”).
The same FREE/250-trading-stamps ad also ran on the same date in El Heraldo de Brownsville — see HH-CLIP-1961-0001. Two distinct Brownsville papers, same ad copy, same date: this trio (the Victoria Advocate trade story + the two Brownsville-paper ads) documents the simultaneous press rollout of the appreciation-certificate program across South Texas markets on 31 August 1961.
Transcription
FREE!
(graphic: 25¢ Master Chef savings-stamp certificate, reading)
Master Chef 25 — This certificate entitles 25 SAVINGS SAMPLES NOT NEGOTIABLE [NOW] [savings stamp certificate]
with Master Chef COFFEE
250 TRADING STAMPS OF YOUR CHOICE *
NOW your favorite coffee gives you YOUR FAVORITE “TRADING STAMPS” FREE! THAT’S RIGHT! It’s MASTER CHEF’S way of saying THANK YOU—TO YOU! You can NOW FILL YOUR “TRADING STAMP BOOKS” FASTER … GET MORE GIFTS SOONER. It’s ALL FREE to you from us. And …
You still receive the RARE COFFEES IMPORTED BY MASTER CHEF from high in the Andes of South America and blended with the rich pungent coffees from other great coffee producing countries.
Buy your can of MASTER CHEF today! You’ll find complete details packed with every vacuum can of MASTER CHEF COFFEE now on your grocer’s shelf.
*OR CASH REFUND
Sipping Good!
(packaging photographs: regular-grind Master Chef vacuum can with “FREE! 250 TRADING STAMPS” flash; drip-grind Master Chef vacuum can)
Master Chef Coffee
A Product of HOFFMANN-HAYMAN COFFEE COMPANY — SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
Source
El Nuevo Heraldo (Brownsville, Tex.), Thursday, 31 August 1961, p. 8, Master Chef Coffee “FREE! 250 Trading Stamps of Your Choice” display ad, Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. Newspapers.com clip: https://www.newspapers.com/image/13668010/ (accessed 20 May 2026).
