Betty Crocker First Lady of Food

Famous Food Icons

Alison L. Eldridge, PhD, RD Suzanne C. Goodsell

he is recognized by millions from the cookbooks that grace our kitchens and the cake mixes that S have helped us celebrate our lives. To many, Betty Crocker seems as familiar as a friend. We were raised on her recipes and enjoy the convenience of her Helpers, mixes, and frostings even today. Although she never was a real person, this American icon was ‘‘born’’ in 1921 and since then has become synonymous with helpfulness, trustworthiness, and quality in the kitchen.

Who would believe Betty Crocker is 85 years old!

Betty is Born The idea for Betty Crocker began with a Gold Medal 1955 flour promotion published in the Saturday Evening Post in 1921. Washburn Crosby Company, the forerunner of General Mills, offered consumers a flour sack pin cushion for correctly completing a jigsaw puzzle depicting a milling scene. Surprisingly, 30,000 finished puzzles were returned, along with hundreds of letters asking questions about baking. A savvy in-house advertising director leaped at the opportunity, convincing company leaders to invent a friendly woman to personally reply to each customer inquiry. The name ‘‘Betty’’ was chosen because it sounded friendly and wholesome. ‘‘Crocker’’ was added in honor of a recently retired director, William G. Crocker. To develop the distinctive Betty Crocker signature, an informal contest was held among female employees. The winning entry remains the basis of today’s Betty Crocker signature. Betty Crocker’s name was first used in print advertisements and on letters offering cooking and baking advice and then for company-sponsored regional cooking schools. Her reputation skyrocketed, however, with the debut of her national radio series ‘‘Gold Medal 1936 Flour Home Service Talks’’ in 1925. The broadcast,

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1965 1972 consisting of an audio cooking school and talks about country to create General Mills in 1928. A cadre of 21 food preparation, model menus, and party suggestions, home economists was hired in the General Mills Kitchens was a recipe for success, reaching millions of radio to develop recipes for Betty’s radio program. In 1946, the listeners by 1930. Variations of the ‘‘Betty Crocker name of the test facilities was formally changed to the Cooking School of the Air’’ were broadcast for more Betty Crocker Kitchens. Today, a state-of-the-art facility than 27 years, making it one of the longest running houses 19 fully equipped kitchens where home economists shows in radio history. create recipes for a whole new generation of cooks. Into the Kitchen The Face of Betty Crocker Meanwhile, back in Minneapolis, the Washburn Crosby With radio programs escalating Betty Crocker’s Company joined with several other mills from around the popularity, General Mills leaders decided she needed

1969 1980

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named Betty CrockerVnot quite 25 years oldVone of the most popular women in America, second only to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. From then on, Betty Crocker was heralded as America’s First Lady of Food. Since then, she has been the topic of numerous articles, documentaries, and recently, a book.1 Recipes for Success The first cookbook using the Betty Crocker name, released in 1933, was a collection of favorites from famous chefs worldwide. In 1942, the first book with Betty’s own recipes was publishedVBetty Crocker’s Cook Book of All Purpose Baking. In the 1950s, the convergence of new appliances with convenience foods created a need for new recipes as American families flocked to their new suburban kitchens. Responding to the call, Betty Crocker’s Picture Cook Book, also known as Big Red, was 2 1986 released in 1950. Millions of copies of the familiar red and white cookbook have been sold over the years, making it one of the world’s all-time best-selling books. a face. A prominent New York artist, Neysa McMein, Now in its 10th edition, the cookbook was last released was commissioned to create Betty Crocker’s first official in 2005.3 portrait, painted in 1936. The portrait has been updated In addition to Big Red, dozens of specialty 7 times since, but in each one, Betty wears her signature cookbooks are now on the market, focusing on ethnic red and white. Although her hairstyles and clothes cuisines, such as Indian, Italian, and Chinese, as well have evolved to reflect the fashion trends of American as specific health topics, such as heart health, weight women, her age and demeanor have also changed to management, diabetes, and cancer. Staying current reflect the times. For the most recent portrait, pictures with consumers, the company published its first of 75 winners of a nationwide ‘‘Spirit of Betty Crocker’’ bilingual English-Spanish cookbookVCocina Betty contest were digitally blended with an earlier portrait CrockerVin 2005.4 to create her newest look. Supporting the War Effort Betty Crocker has always had her flour-dusted fingers on the pulse of American culture, and during World War II, her support was enlisted to help her country. The Office of War Information leveraged Betty’s popularity for a series of home defense radio broadcasts on topics such as planting victory gardens, managing ration points, and sending messages to soldiers. The government also used Betty Crocker’s name to distribute nearly 7,000 copies of a booklet called Your Share, to familiarize Americans with wartime protocol. As Betty’s radio popularity grew, so did the volume of mail. At her peak in the 1940s, she received as many as 5,000 letters per day. Most letters requested cooking advice or recipes, but Betty Crocker also received more unusual requests, including marriage proposals. As Betty Crocker was married to her work, she respectfully declined. In 1945, Fortune magazine 1996

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www.generalmills.com/corporate/company/history The first Betty Crocker Cookbook .aspx. cost 25 cents and was packed with 220 recipes for baked goods. Alison L. Eldridge, PhD, RD, is manager of Nutrition Science at General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, 9000 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis. Suzanne C. Goodsell, is manager of Internal Communications and Archives at General Mills, 9000 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis. An American Icon Corresponding author: Alison L. Eldridge, PhD, RD, General Mills Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition, 9000 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis, Today, Betty Crocker is more than 85 years old and, MN 55427 (e-mail: [email protected]). through the years, has become a trusted name in American kitchens. She supported homemakers with her radio programs in the first half of the last century REFERENCES and continues to reach new audiences today with her 1. Marks S. Finding Betty Crocker: The Secret Life of cookbooks on ethnic cuisine, health topics, and her America’s First Lady of Food. New York: Simon & Shuster; new bilingual cookbook. Although she was first depicted 2005. a stern kitchen matron, her image has evolved into a 2. Betty Crocker Editors. Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook. younger, approachable ‘‘everywoman,’’ savvy at business 1950. Facsimile ed. Minneapolis: Hungry Minds, Inc, and competent in running her household yet always and General Mills; 1998. representing a recognized name and symbolic face of 3. Betty Crocker Editors. Betty Crocker Cookbook: Everything American cooking. You Need to Know to Cook Today. 10th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley; 2005. Acknowledgment 4. Betty Crocker Editors. Cocina Betty Crocker: Recetas Americanas Favoritas en Espan˜ol e Ingle´s [Favorite Historical information provided by the General Mills American Recipes in Spanish and English]. Hoboken, NJ: Archives. Additional information can be found at Wiley; 2005.

Stigmatizing Overweight People treatment was reported by 79% of the participants, Can Discourage Dieting and refusing to diet was reported by 75%. A smaller A study of overweight people tested the claim that number, 63%, said that they had used dieting to cope weight bias motivates people to lose weight and with stigma. Participants reported many forms of found that the opposite can be the caseVindividuals weight bias. The most common was other people cope with weight stigmatization through a variety making negative assumptions about them because of of strategies, including eating more food and giving their weight (68%), closely followed by receiving nasty up on dieting. In a survey of more than 2,000 members comments from children (63%). The sources of the of a weight loss support program conducted by stigmatization were surprising. Family members were researchers at Yale, 93% reported ‘‘heading off negative the most frequent perpetrators at 72%, and physicians remarks’’ as a coping strategy to deal with weight closely following at 69%. In a smaller men-only group, stigma; 91% used positive self-talk; 89% sought social classmates were the most common source of weight support; and 86% used faith, prayer, and religion, the discrimination, with 68% of men saying they had been same percentage that used self-love and self-acceptance. stigmatized by classmates more than once. Eating more food in response to discriminatory Source: Obesity

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