- Sunny Jim
"Sunny Jim" is the name of two completely unconnected characters used in advertising and product branding: (1) a
cartoon character created to promote "Force" cereal, the first commercially successful wheat flake; (2) the name of a brand of peanut butter produced in the Seattle area"Sunny Jim" has also been used as a nickname for various individuals.
unny Jim and Force cereal
The character on boxes of Force cereal was created in the United States in 1902 by writer
Minnie Maud Hanff and artistDorothy Ficken , initially for an advertising campaign. Rather than selling the benefits of eating wheat, which Hanff assumed customers already knew, her copy for the original advertisements told stories in verse, such as this one:Jim Dumps was a most unfriendly man,Who lived his life on the hermit plan;In his gloomy way he'd gone through life,And made the most of woe and strife;Till Force one day was served to himSince then they've called him "Sunny Jim."
The advertisements featured slogans such as "Better than a Vacation” and “A Different Food for Indifferent Appetites.” Other verses included:
Whatever you say, wherever you've been, You can't beat the cereal, that raised Sunny Jim!
and
High o'er the fence leaps Sunny JimForce is the food that raises him
This last rhyme became a familiar catchphrase.
The campaign was wildly successful at promoting the character of Sunny Jim. "Printer's Ink" stated that “No current novel or play is so universally popular. He is as well-known as President Roosevelt or J. Pierpont Morgan.” However, the cereal company turned its advertising account over to a different firm, which did not approve of humor in advertising and more or less abandoned the campaign.
In the United States Force followed a convoluted path involving many corporate mergers. The last owner stopped producing the cereal in 1983. Both the cereal and Sunny Jim had greater success in the United Kingdom, where Force cereal is still available and the box still features a picture of Sunny Jim.
unny Jim Peanut Butter
The brand of peanut butter known as "Sunny Jim" was manufactured in
Seattle, Washington by thePacific Standard Foods company. The company was founded by Germanus Wilhelm Firnstahl, who modelled the apple-cheeked character seen on the jars on his son, Lowell. During the 1950s the brand accounted for nearly a third of all peanut butter sold in the Seattle area. The company was sold in 1979 for $3 million to the Bristol Bay Native Corp. A large sign on the factory building made the "Sunny Jim building" on Airport Way South a familiar landmark to motorists passing on nearby Interstate 5 until the building burned down in 1997.Other uses
*
Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons (1874-1966) was a famous thoroughbredhorse trainer .*
James Callaghan ,Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1976 to 1979, was nicknamed 'Sunny Jim' for his optimistic forecasting to the public.*By the 1920s, "Sunny Jim" had become a popular sobriquet for someone who is being grumpy.
*A character named Sunny Jim appears in the comic book series "
The Adventures of Tintin ", making his debut in "Tintin and the Picaros " as the costume designer for the Jolly Follies.*General Alexander A. Vandegrift, 18th Commandant of the Marine Corps, was known as "Sunny Jim," a nickname given to him by his mentor Smedley J. Butler [http://www.nps.gov/wapa/indepth/extContent/usmc/pcn-190-003117-00/sec1.htm]
*At the
La Jolla Cove beach in San Diego, California, there is a sea cave called "Sunny Jim Cave." When the cave is viewed from a certain angle, the opening of the cave bears a striking similarity to the cartoon character. The cave is accessible by swimming from the cove, but also is accessible from a neaby store that charges a nominal fee to walk down some in-store steps leading to the cave. [cite web|url=http://www.showcaves.com/english/usa/showcaves/SunnyJim.html|title=Show Caves of the United States|accessdate=2008-03-08]References
External links
Seattle Times stories about Sunny Jim peanut butter (registration required):
* [http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2525031&date=19970221&query=%22Sunny+Jim%22 Fire Destroys I-5 Landmark -- Warehouse That Housed Sunny Jim (Peanut Butter) Plant Burns]
* [http://archives.seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/texis.cgi/web/vortex/display?slug=2143344&date=19950924&query=%22Sunny+Jim%22 Celeste F. Rogge, Who Inherited The Sunny Jim (Peanut Butter) Fortune, Dies At 84]
* [http://www.salemstate.edu/sextant/volXII_2/SEXT-essay-sunny-jim.htm The Case for Sunny Jim: An Advertising Legend Revisited] by Eileen Margerum, Sextant, the journal ofSalem State College on Sunny Jim and Force cereal.
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