Betty Crocker

Betty Crocker is a fictional character used in advertising campaigns for food and recipes, originally by the Washburn-Crosby Company, today General Mills, an American Fortune 500 corporation which owns the brand name and trademark. Betty epitomizes a motherly, caring and knowledgeable homemaker offering cooking and housekeeping advice. A portrait of Betty Crocker first commissioned in 1936 and revised several times since appears on printed advertisements and product packaging. On television and radio broadcasts, Betty Crocker was acted by several actresses, most notably by Adelaide Hawley Cumming between 1949 and 1964.

The character was first developed by Marjorie Husted in 1921 as a way to give a personalized response to consumer product questions. The name Betty was selected because it was viewed as a cheery, all-American name. It was paired with the last name Crocker, in honor of William Crocker, a Washburn Crosby Company director.

Described as an American cultural icon, image of Betty Crocker has endured several generations, adapting to changing social, political and economic currents. Apart from advertising campaigns in printed, broadcast and digital media, she received a number of cultural references in film, literature, music and comics.

Betty Crocker was created in 1921 by Marjorie Husted, a home economist and businesswoman, and advertiser Bruce Barton. Under Husted's supervision the image of Betty Crocker became an icon for General Mills. In 1928, Washburn Crosby merged with five or more other milling companies to form General Mills.

In 1924, Betty acquired a voice with the debut of "The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air" on one station in Minneapolis. It was the country's first radio cooking show, and Agnes White was selected to portray Betty Crocker. The show proved popular, and eventually was carried nationally on NBC Radio, with Agnes as Betty. Over the next two decades, Agnes would anonymously portray Betty Crocker on the air and at cooking schools.

In 1929, Betty Crocker coupons were introduced. Inserted in bags of flour, they could be used to reduce the cost of Oneida Limited flatware. By 1932, this scheme had become so popular that General Mills began to offer an entire set of flatware; the pattern was called "Friendship" (later renamed "Medality"). In 1937, the coupons were printed on the outside of packages, copy on which told purchasers to "save and redeem for big savings on fine kitchen and home accessories in our catalog".

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