Jolly Green Giant

The Jolly Green Giant towers over most other advertising icons. The original giant dates to 1925, when the Minnesota Valley Canning Company wanted to sell a new kind of pea that was tender, sweet, and tasty. But it was also wrinkled, oblong, and huge, and small June peas were popular at the time. To overcome market resistance, Minnesota Valley cleverly capitalized on the size of the peas by calling them Green Giant and putting a symbolic giant on the label.

The first giant looked quite different from the one that the world now knows. Based on a character in a Grimm fairy tale, the original figure sported a bearskin and a scowl. He was white and hunched over, and seemed more like a dwarf than a giant. In 1935 Leo Burnett’s Chicago advertising agency provided a much-needed makeover and created a giant with better posture, green skin, a leafy outfit, and a big smile. Accompanying the smile was the addition of “Jolly” to the Green Giant’s name.