whatilearned
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ploughman’s_lunch
TIL the renouned British pub meal, ‘Ploughman’s Lunch’, was invented in the 1950s as a marketing exercise. The Cheese Bureau, a marketing body, began promoting it in pubs as a way to increase the sales of cheese, which had recently ceased to be rationed.
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Well, according to the wikipedia link you posted, the *term* “Ploughman’s Lunch” was coined in the 1950s by the Cheese Bureau. The actual meal of mostly bread and cheese has been around much, much longer:
>Pierce the Ploughman’s Crede (c. 1394) mentions the traditional ploughman’s meal of bread, cheese, and beer. Bread and cheese formed the basis of the diet of English rural labourers for centuries: skimmed-milk cheese, supplemented with a little lard and butter, was their main source of fats and protein.
Victoria Coren Mitchell had a show called “Balderdash and Piffle,” about word origins and first known uses. I don’t know how to post a time-stamped link but she delves into this and hunts down the actual ads themselves if you want to see them. Starts around 39 min. https://youtu.be/oYFLDjmyJ-g