Photo on a milk carton

A photo on a milk carton was a United States-based custom of printing advertisements on milk cartons to draw attention to a missing child.

In 1979 there was no system in the United States for tracking missing children nationwide. In 1979, a six-year old child Etan Patz went missing. In 1985 the boy's photo was printed on milk cartons so that consumers purchasing milk at retail markets could be encouraged to look for the missing child. Patz was the first missing person to be sought with this milk carton strategy.

By 1985, 700 of 1600 independent dairies in the United States had adopted the practice of publishing photos of missing children on milk cartons.

The practice had begun to fade by the late 1980's, and is now replaced by the Amber alert system.

...
Wikipedia