History Main / FaceOnAMilkCarton

While the practice of printing missing persons on milk cartons has become superfluous, many large stores still have a collection of "missing" posters displayed near the doors, where customers entering and exiting can see them, and some trucks and vans will have them on their back windows or somewhere on the trailer in the case of 18-wheelers. In the Internet age, in addition to the Amber alerts, the family of the missing child may post something on the internet. This ''can'' backfire, however: even if the child ''is'' found and the alert post is no longer relevant, it will still be circulated through email inboxes, blogs, and social media. And sometimes, well-meaning people pass them on, even if it turns out that they are misunderstandings, missing information, outdated, or outright hoaxes.

* The third season ''Series/DoomPatrol'' episode "[[Recap/DoomPatrol2019S3E05DadaPatrol Dada Patrol]]" at one point shows a milk carton bearing the picture of Isabel Feathers, an actress Laura [=DeMille=] caused to fall down a pit earlier in the season.

* The third season ''Series/DoomPatrol'' episode "[[Recap/DoomPatrol2019S3E06DadaPatrol Dada Patrol]]" at one point shows a milk carton bearing the picture of Isabel Feathers, an actress Laura [=DeMille=] caused to fall down a pit earlier in the season.

* In ''ComicBook/AllStarBatmanAndRobinTheBoyWonder'' a.k.a. ''ASBAR'', Superman sees the face of Dick Grayson on a milk carton. Particularly jarring, as Dick had been taken in by Batman ''that very day''. From one review of [[http://www.i-mockery.com/comics/longbox7/default.php the comic.]]
--> ...it's actually been a long enough ride in the Batmobile for Dick to have been reported missing, for his name to get to the missing persons groups, for them to submit his information to the milk company, for the milk company to print the cartons, distribute the cartons, and then for Clark Kent to go to the grocery store and buy the carton of milk. Let's see, by my rough estimate, that means that Batman and Dick have been on the way to the Batcave for, oh, about FIVE FUCKING WEEKS now.

** At the conclusion of the TV movie "Adam", about the kidnapping and murder of [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh#:~:text=Article%20Talk,%2C%20on%20July%2027%2C%201981. Adam Walsh]], the pictures of various missing children were shown. This was repeated the second and third time the movie was aired, and each time resulted in the rescue of a handful of the children.

* In Issue 2, part 2 of [[ComicBook/WITCH]], Irma's crush Andrew Hornby receives a spot on a milk carton [[spoiler:following her turning him into a frog to stop him from kissing her]].

* Parodied in the ''Franchise/{{Madagascar}}'' short "WesternAnimation/TheMadagascarPenguinsInAChristmasCaper" when Private goes missing. Once the other penguins notice that he's gone, Kowalski dramatically turns around an egg nog carton with Private's face on it. This is the same carton seen ''before'' Private ran away when the other penguins performed a chugging contest.

* Lampshaded on a Back in Black segment of ''Series/TheDailyShow'', where when talking about a contest involving racing boats made of milk cartons, Lewis Black's voiceover for the footage was "This guy's actually thinking, 'where have I seen that kid before? Oh, that's right, on the stern!"

* In Issue 2, part 2 of [[ComicBook/Witch]], Irma's crush Andrew Hornby receives a spot on a milk carton [[spoiler:following her turning him into a frog to stop him from kissing her]].

* In Issue 2, part 2 of [[ComicBook/W.i.t.c.h.]], Irma's crush Andrew Hornby receives a spot on a milk carton [[spoiler:following her turning him into a frog to stop him from kissing her]].

* In Issue 2, part 2 of [[W.i.t.c.h.]], Irma's crush Andrew Hornby receives a spot on a milk carton [[spoiler:following her turning him into a frog to stop him from kissing her]].

* One of the NonStandardGameOver sequences in ''VideoGame/ConkersBadFurDay'' is a milk carton with Conker's face on it. This only happens if you get a game over before seeing the cutscene wherein the BigBad orders his henchmen to capture Conker so he can use the squirrel as a replacement for his table's missing leg.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Daria}}'' episodes "Lane Miserables" and "Psycho Therapy," you can briefly see "[[http://www.dariawiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Head_(backgrounder) The Head]]," a memorable RecurringExtra who had a few lines in the first episode, as a MythologyGag.

** Apparently, Sherry Bobbins was missing in 1984.

--> '''Grandpa''': I'll tell you one thing! Those two lil' brats, their faces are gonna be on ''MILK MUH-CARTONS!!'''

* Even before [[TechnologyMarchesOn systems like Amber Alerts made the practice obsolete]], the actual effectiveness of using milk cartons to promote missing child cases was hotly contested. The first unavoidable issue was that the pipeline for starting a missing child investigation, obtaining a photo of the child, printing it out onto cartons, and then distributing the cartons to customers was a long process that could take up to weeks, a gap which -- if the child truly was abducted by a malicious party -- [[DownerEnding would tragically be far too long to save them]] (in these extremely rare cases where a kidnapper would want the child dead, the deed would usually take place within one or two days after kidnapping). This also resulted in other issues, such as the inability to gather and distribute data regarding the program's ''success'', and the near omnipresent proliferation of missing child reports that may or may not have been resolved on such a common medium [[ParanoiaFuel promoted quite a stressful environment for children, exposing them to a constant fear of being abducted themselves]]. Moreover, it's gradually become more well-known that a vast majority of "missing children" tend to be abducted by people they already knew (such as parents amidst divorce and custody disputes), usually resulting in litigation between aware parties who know exactly where the child is and thus don't need help from strangers to "find" them.
* Supposedly the first face on a milk carton was that of Etan Patz, a six-year-old boy who disappeared in New York City in 1979 while walking two blocks to catch his school bus. Patz was never found. A man confessed to Patz's murder in 2012; while the first trial ended in a hung jury, the man was found guilty in the second trial held in 2017 and sentenced to 25 years to life in jail.

* Official United States tax instruction books and pamphlets still have these pictures. They were removed from milk cartons years ago ''because they were scaring children.''

* Canal 5 (one of the Creator/{{Televisa}} channels) used a variation of this trope in a "bulletin board"-esque broadcast item known as "Al Servicio de la Comunidad" (which was often aired during ''children's programs'' of all things). The appearance of a girl named "Selene Delgado" in one segment sparked internet debates on whether or not she was real and some Spanish-language Creepypastas. These broadcasts were so remembered by Mexicans that Creator/{{Netflix}} [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xoTblSVeuY created a faux broadcast to promote]] ''Series/StrangerThings''.

* The music video for Music/{{Blur}}'s [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCe5yiMWPbA ''Coffee and TV'']] sends this one up wonderfully. Singer/guitarist Graham Coxon's face is on a sentient milk carton... which manages to track him down and return him to his parents. Alas, Graham drinks the milk on the bus ride home, killing the faithful carton and sending him to heaven as a little milk-carton angel. At least he was reunited with his true love, a little strawberry milk carton.

* The video for Music/GunsNRoses' cover of "Live And Let Die" features a milk carton with a picture of recently-departed guitarist Izzy Stradlin on it.
** In concerts after Izzy left, Axl would refer to him as "our milk carton poster boy".