A curious trend in advertising emerged after World War II. Spokeswomen were fabricated by food companies (General Mills, Carnation, Libby's, Dole, Pillsbury) all vying for the patronage of the American housewife. These ladies did more than provide a smiling, consumer-friendly human face to industrial food corporations, they were fictional characters with fleshed-out personalities and character traits that blurred the line between fact and fiction in advertising and "forged a crucial link between old habits and new foods" in an age of innovations in the kitchen.
Ever since the end of WW2, the nation's food became ever more processed. In ads and other promotional materials, such traditional kitchen chores as cleaning vegetables, chopping. ingredients, measuring, and mixing were dismissed as old-fashioned and unnecessarily labor-intensive. Modern electric appliances, TV dinners, instant mixes—the completely new idea of cooking being rigorously advertised to Americans created tension between the old and the new, traditional and modern, and the art and satisfaction of cooking versus instant gratification and “perfect,” formulaic results.
Research among modern homemakers had shown them to feel 'uncertain--anxious--insecure' about their work
"encouragement and appreciation...appreciation and recognition...family appreciation' were the solution
to feeling satisfied with domesticity
"nobody in Betty Croker's vicinity was in danger of being identified as 'just a housewife'"
Companies attempted to account for these discrepancies by using the familiar “standard cookbook format” in advertisements showcasing recipes as a link to the past. They also designed model spokeswomen to “project specific, carefully researched characteristics to women shopping for their households.” A business publication from 1957 listed the ideal corporate character:
a woman, between the ages of 32 and 40, attractive, but not competitively so, mature but youthful-looking, competent yet warm, understanding but not sentimental, interested in the consumer but not involved with her
The elusive and surreal qualities of these “live trademarks” blurred fiction and reality by being unattainable yet marketed as “just like you,” being completely fictional and yet supposedly trading recipes with one another and being portrayed by actresses on radio and TV spots. They connected with the public by teaching women how to use new electric appliances, how to cook frozen food, how to use boxed mixes, and creative ways to employ food coloring and canned foods. They did this in magazine advice columns, in advertisements, and on television and radio programs. Through all of these popular media, they infiltrated the world of the wife whose main contribution to the family unit was, supposedly, the upkeep of the household, in which the family meal was a key component.
The Creation and Impact of Betty Crocker
The most successful of these women was Betty Crocker, still a household name today. She was created in 1921 by what is now General Mills when the employees of their magazine noticed a definitive trend in the questions being asked in letters sent by customers: everyone wanted to know how to make the perfect cake. Employees signed each response letter with the name “Betty Crocker,” which eventually became the trademarked face of the company and, perhaps, modern domesticity in the United States.
Betty – “homey”
Crocker – name of a longtime company executive.
The name itself is a blending of traditional (comfortable, old-fashioned, respectable) and modern (company loyalty, connection to the corporation).
During the immediate postwar era, Betty Crocker provided a steady, confident, guiding voice for homemakers through “a time of tension and change in the kitchen.” Millions of Americans listened to her on the radio, read her column in the newspaper, and watched her on TV. In the early 1950’s, General Mills surveys showed that 99% of American housewives were familiar with Betty Crocker's name and more than 66% correctly identified her with the company.
"And here she is, America's first lady of food--your Betty Crocker" 'underscoring the fact that BC could be whatever her public wished or believed' radio shows "conveyed a remarkably fluid version of reality. They seemed to emanate from a world without boundaries, where real people conversed easiy with made-up colleagues, and genuine discussions melted into commercial fantasies"
The many faces of "Betty Crocker" over the years
The brand of domesticity that Betty Crocker promoted is subtley indicative of our modern perceptions of misogynistic 1950s housewifery. Although she often made a point of “praising the housewife’s importance,” emphasizing that good cooking was an achievement which should be taken with pride, and being composed with confidence, it was all undermined by the fact that her entire existence was scripted and crafted by a company attempting to sell certain ideas, not to mention products, in the mass media. While she, perhaps, inspired confidence in housewives and addressed their uncertainty and anxiety, her number one priority was to sell cake mixes, recipe books, and, of course, trust in the company. She built false trust by being an unrealistic conglomeration of everything the American consumer would look for in a domestic advisor. She was a composite of a real woman built from market research, further pushing unattainable ideals for the American woman to compare herself to and ultimately never live up to—thus, prone to become reliant on the advice and products of “experts” like Betty Crocker to make up for her “failings.”
-Summer
Links
www.vintageadsandstuff.com/
Betty Crocker Magazine Inserts
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