Who in the World Was the Real Betty Crocker?

Standing in the baking aisle of the grocery store, you contemplate which boxed cake mix is the best for the occasion. But for many mothers and grandmothers, there is one brand that stands alone. Today, this famous brand has shifted from a recognizable signature as a logo to a red cooking spoon. Say hello to Betty Crocker. Ever wonder if she was a real person or a marketing phenomenon?

Who Is Betty Crocker?

”After a century in media, Betty Crocker has become a fully vested American symbol of family, hearth, and home that many generations treasure and look up to," says Margaret J. King, Ph.D., director of Cultural Studies & Analysis, a think tank that advises businesses on their fit with culture and cultural values. "Her image is solidly emblematic of the middle-class, productivity, and women as homemakers."

But Betty Crocker wasn't a real person; a contest would inspire her creation. The Washburn-Crosby Company, which owned Gold Medal Flour (and was later sold to General Mills) always responded to customer queries. In 1921, the company advertised a contest in the Saturday Evening Post where contestants had to complete and mail in a jigsaw puzzle. They didn't expect a flood of baking questions along with the contest entries. Although they often received letters and always responded, the company capitalized on the moment by creating a persona to answer home cooks' questions. Betty Crocker was born. According to King, "Answering letters was already part of the company’s public relations department; creating a completely new character was innovative marketing genius."

Why the Name "Betty Crocker"?

Betty was coined because the name seemed friendly; “[Betty is] an informal family-style name, but still traditional (nickname for Elizabeth, with Hebrew and English roots)," says King. The last name came from the retired director of the company, William G. Crocker.

But Betty wasn’t one person—she was a persona—so the marketing department could respond to all the queries and personalize them by signing off as Betty.  According to the company, women employees were asked to create a signature and one of them was chosen, which is still in use today.

They even gave her a face and modified her image over the years to keep her current. "Through seven transformations, from 1936 to 1996, she maintained her recognizable middle-American ‘ageless 32’ image—in fact, she looks progressively younger in each, and by the mid-‘90s, has acquired an all-ethnic olive complexion," says King.

Betty Gets a Voice

Marjorie Child Husted, a home economist and businesswoman, was hired by the Washburn-Crosby company as a home economics field representative. In 1924, the company started a radio show about cooking, the“Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air," which became  a hit. "Novel for the time," says King. "What we would go to YouTube to watch now, people could reference in 1924 by radio, the leading public media format."

Husted became the voice of Betty. "She was the radio voice because as an employee of Gold Medal, Husted founded the Home Services Department, which was the in-house organization that managed the Betty Crocker image in media," says King.

How Betty Crocker Became an Icon

The first Betty Crocker food product–dried soup mix–debuted in 1942 and five years later, General Mills launched boxed cake mixes to simplify food preparation. "She filled a gap in the homemaking pantheon," says King. "Preparing dishes using packaged mixes was still not familiar (compared to cooking from scratch) and Betty was the link, informing the nation of the DIY aspects of processed and packaged recipes."

For many women, Betty Crocker was the person they relied on for baking and cooking advice. "Betty’s image began to recede as a symbol invested with the World War II generation that has now almost totally passed away," says King. "Betty represents a reliable universe, the one in which you can depend on media leaders not to make rash or selfish decisions, to hold the right values, to be principled and rational, and to speak with the voice of reason and moral authority around the house."