Mrs. Butterworth's
Product type | Syrup and baking mixes |
---|---|
Owner | Conagra Brands |
Country | United States |
Introduced | 1961 |
Markets | Worldwide |
Previous owners | Mrs. Butterworth's |
Website | www |
Mrs. Butterworth's is an American brand of syrups and pancake mixes owned by Conagra Brands. The syrups come in distinctive bottles shaped in the form of a matronly woman, Mrs. Butterworth. The syrup was introduced in 1961. In 1999, the original glass bottles began to be replaced with plastic.
Advertising
One of the main voice actresses for Mrs. Butterworth was Mary Kay Bergman.
Kim Fields appeared in a commercial for the product during the late-1970s.
In 2007, Mrs. Butterworth was used in a series of ads for GEICO, in which she helped an actual customer with her testimonial.
In 2019, she appeared along with an actor playing Colonel Sanders in a KFC commercial spoofing a scene from Dirty Dancing, promoting chicken and waffles using Mrs. Butterworth's syrup.[citation needed]
Controversy
In 2020, following protests over alleged systemic racism, Conagra Brands announced that it would review the shape of their bottles, as critics viewed them as an example of the "mammy" stereotype. In ads, Mrs. Butterworth's voice has evoked a grandmotherly white woman, and she has been portrayed by Caucasian voice actresses. Despite this, some reports have claimed, without citing any sources, that the character was originally modeled on Butterfly McQueen, who appeared as the maid in Gone with the Wind (1939).
In popular culture
In 2005, Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco made reference to the brand on Kanye West's "Touch the Sky," with the lyric "bottle-shaped body like Mrs. Butterworth".
In 2009, then-parent company Pinnacle Foods held a "first name contest" for the product's mascot; the winning name was "Joy", making the full name Joy Butterworth. The character appears in the 2012 American film Foodfight!.
See also