The Story Behind The Betty Crocker Logo
Is there anyone in America who hasn't heard of Betty Crocker and isn't aware of her culinary influence on American culture? Maybe not, but it's less likely that you know her background and the story behind the iconic Betty Crocker spoon logo. The first surprise is that Betty was a completely made-up person, according to General Mills, current owner of the Betty Crocker brand. Betty Crocker was a marketing idea; the real-life physical incarnation came only after the "perfect homemaker" persona became a champion of domesticity.
The first "Betty" was actually a group of women answering letters at the original Washburn-Crosby company in Minnesota. After a Gold Medal Flour ad appeared in a 1921 issue of "The Saturday Evening Post," 30,000 homemakers responded to a jigsaw-puzzle challenge and claimed the reward of a flour-bag-shaped pincushion (via General Mills). The personality of Betty Crocker sprang to life as an expert homemaker, answering hundreds of cooking questions by mail, explains PBS, describing the fledgling-Betty as the "Dear Abby" of cooking.
Betty Croker received a radio voice three years later in the "Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air" and an official face in a 1936 portrait by well-known artist Neysa McMein, notes "The Saturday Evening Post." An inkling of the eventual permanent logo came in the red jacket and white collar of that 1936 painting, a color scheme that still graces Betty Crocker product packaging today.
A Betty Crocker logo for the ages
The April 1945 issue of "Fortune" magazine deemed the fictional Betty Crocker second only to Eleanor Roosevelt as the most famous woman in America, earning her the moniker of "First Lady of Food," according to the University of Houston College of Engineering, in an essay on the birth of "household engineers" fueling the emergence of kitchen gadgets. Finally, starting in 1949, Betty made history as a "living trademark" incarnated by actor Adelaid Hawley, per Betty Crocker Kitchens. But the permanent printed spoon logo we know today was yet to be born.
The trademark red spoon logo arrived in 1954 after a public relations firm updated an earlier design, adding a handle and stem to transform an oval into a spoon. The company's "A Spoon is Born" pamphlet announced the merging of Betty Crocker and the spoon, a symbol of good products and good recipes, per General Mills. That symbol has survived for decades, featured on at least 200 products ranging from pancake mixes to cake boxes, cookbooks, and now on collectible merchandise online.
Betty Crocker Kitchens notes how the brand has permeated kitchen culture throughout literature, movies, music, and TV for more than 100 years. A testament to its enduring imprint on domesticity lives on in the well-known phrase, "Call me Betty Crocker," which even had its own website and recipe contest in 2021.