Community Corner
Quaker Oats Man Gets Makeover
After 135 years, the chubby-faced icon called "Larry" gets a new look that includes no more double chins and shorter hair.
I can’t say I blame them. Everyone needs a little nip 'n’ tuck every now and then.
If I were 135 years old like “Larry” the Quaker Oats icon, I’d go in for some work too. And that’s just what happened to the robust guy last week. After all his decades of gracing cartons, boxes and cans, the company shaved off a few years. It erased his double chins and chubby cheeks, as well as made his gray locks a tad shorter. He still has those twinkling eyes and a few crow's feet, but I gotta say it took at least five years off him. Had he been the product of a California company, he would have had the work done years ago!
“We took about 5 pounds off him,” a designer from Hornall Anderson, the firm behind the redesign, told the Wall Street Journal.
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In addition to Larry’s great new look, the logo itself has been revamped to include more red and gold at the bottom. Quaker Oats owner PepsiCo introduced the changes in an effort to make the brand “fresh and innovative,” which might take a bit of doing, given that their product is a "desiccated cereal grain,” according to a TimeNewfeeds.com article.
Now if they could just do something about his ancient clothes.
I grew up on Quaker oatmeal, and spent many a morning with my spoon buried deep into a big, sticky bowl of oats before heading off to school. I never gave the Quaker Oats man much thought in terms of his appearance until I heard he had a makeover. His image is just one of those American icons that we see day in and day out. So when I heard that they gave him a face-lift and I saw the results, I was happy for him. Why should he look like he just stepped off the Mayflower or like Ben Franklin? It is 2012, right?
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I think some other icons who could use a makeover include Aunt Jemima and poor Betty Crocker. Heck, Mr. Clean, Ronald McDonald and Cap'N Crunch got makeovers. Can you think of any others who need to a fresh look? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Oh, incidentally, I still enjoy a piping hot bowl of oatmeal, topped with raisins, cranberries, brown sugar, and soy milk at least a few times a week. But these past few days, I have definitely looked at Larry the Quaker Oats man in a whole new light.
I wonder if there is a Mrs. Quaker. If not, maybe there will be now.
