He was a man of few words, and those he had were clearly plagiarized from Santa Claus. He was green, he was a giant, and had it not been for an extreme makeover, he might never have found his way into our collective hearts. Hawking his wares of freshly canned vegetables, he is none other than the Jolly Green Giant. Let’s take a look back at this memorable mascot.(More after the break)
Originally referred to as Green Giant, he first came on to the scene in 1928, as a new mascot for the Minnesota Valley Canning Company. Unfortunately, he shared an affliction common among giants – he was a bit scary looking to the youngsters. Perhaps the victim of childhood teasing, he possessed a notable scowl and almost ghoulish appearance – problematic, to say the least, to be a product pitchman perceived as a monster by the masses.
It would take an ad agency man by the name of Leo Burnett to change things around. They gave him a new look, new surroundings, and made him appear much friendlier. The scowl was replaced with a smile, he did the fashionable name-change thing, now preferring to go by “Jolly Green Giant” and he was given more stylish clothing, including some flashy leaf-covered boots.
The biggest hurdle was how to present the Jolly Green Giant, smiling or not. Puppets were tried, animation was attempted and a lot of big muscular guys were painted green. They even resorted to showing only his feet. No matter what they tried, he still came off looking more like Frankenstein than a friendly giant. Finally, a writer at the ad agency named Bob Noel came up with (borrowed) the jolliest of exclamations, “Ho, Ho, Ho” and that did the trick. Len Dresslar provided the baratone voice and transformed the mascot from ogre to best buddy in three mere words.
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