Parkay

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Parkay ad, 1942 Better get some more Parkay!, 1942.jpg
Parkay ad, 1942

Parkay is a margarine made by ConAgra Foods and introduced in 1937. It is available in spreadable, sprayable, and squeezable forms.

Contents

Parkay was made and sold under the Kraft brand name by National Dairy Products Corporation from 1937 to 1969, then Kraftco Corporation from 1969 to 1976, Kraft, Inc. from 1976 to 1989, Kraft General Foods, Inc. from 1989 to 1995, Nabisco Brands, Inc. from 1995 to 1999, and ConAgra Foods, Inc. since 1999.

The product label states that the product contains 0g trans fat. Yet the ingredients listed on the package include hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils. The Food and Drug Administration allows food manufacturers to claim "0g of trans fats," so long as each serving of the product has less than half a gram of trans fat. [1]

Advertising

In the 1940s and 1950s, Parkay was the long-time sponsor of the radio program The Great Gildersleeve .

Starting in 1973, a long-running advertising campaign was introduced for Parkay featuring a mechanically animated "talking tub" of the product. A typical ad depicted a sort of humorous verbal sparring match between a container of Parkay repeatedly saying "Butter" and a human actor insisting that it is actually Parkay. When the spokesperson tastes the product, they conclude that its creamy texture and buttery taste mean it really is butter, to which the container replies, "Parkay." [2] The tagline: [announcer] "Parkay Margarine from Kraft--the flavor says..." [package] "...butter." Along with the TV ad, there was a series of "PARKAY" radio jingles, :30 seconds, written by David Grober and with a variety of performers; the most famous of these performers was Thurl Ravenscroft, who was also the voice of Tony the Tiger.

The 1973 commercial featured a voice over claiming Parkay tastes like butter. An argumentative housewife looks at a square box of Parkay in her kitchen and says "Parkay". The box of Parkay responds "butter", and they go back and forth until she tries a taste of it and she says "butter". At that point, the margarine says "Parkay!" This was possibly the first Parkay Margarine commercial that featured the phrase "the flavor says butter".

The 1975 commercial featured a laughing Latino man argues with a square box of margarine because when he opens up the Parkay lid, it says to him "mantequilla" (butter) and he did know it is or was margarine. But when he finally tastes it, he then or momentarily says "butter" or "mantequilla" right before the box says "Parkay" in Spanish.

The 1976 commercial featured Todd Bridges, best known for Diff'rent Strokes, along with an as yet unidentified child actor, and followed a similar storyline to the earlier Parkay ads. Similar commercials feature actors Vic Tayback or Mel Stewart.

This ad campaign was also spoofed in a skit from the PBS series The Electric Company (with cast member Skip Hinnant providing the foodstuff's voice).

The brand slogan is memorialized in GangStarr's 1993 hip-hop single, "DWYCK".

Related Research Articles

Butter Dairy product

Butter is a dairy product made from the fat and protein components of churned cream. It is a semi-solid emulsion at room temperature, consisting of approximately 80% butterfat. It is used at room temperature as a spread, melted as a condiment, and used as an ingredient in baking, sauce making, pan frying, and other cooking procedures.

Vegetable oil Oil extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits

Vegetable oils, or vegetable fats, are oils extracted from seeds or from other parts of fruits. Like animal fats, vegetable fats are mixtures of triglycerides. Soybean oil, grape seed oil, and cocoa butter are examples of seed oils, or fats from seeds. Olive oil, palm oil, and rice bran oil are examples of fats from other parts of fruits. In common usage, vegetable oil may refer exclusively to vegetable fats which are liquid at room temperature. Vegetable oils are usually edible.

Margarine Semi-solid oily spread often used as a butter substitute

Margarine is a spread used for flavoring, baking and cooking. It is most often used as a substitute for butter. Although originally made from animal fats, most margarine consumed today is made from vegetable oil. The foodstuff was originally named oleomargarine from Latin for oleum and Greek margarite. The name was later shortened to margarine.

Oreo Chocolate cookie with creme filling

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Nabisco American snack company

Nabisco is an American manufacturer of cookies and snacks headquartered in East Hanover, New Jersey. The company is a subsidiary of Illinois-based Mondelēz International.

Kraft Dinner Boxed macaroni and cheese product

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Macaroni and cheese Pasta dish

Macaroni and cheese—also called mac and cheese in the United States, and macaroni cheese in the United Kingdom—is a dish of cooked macaroni pasta and a cheese sauce, most commonly cheddar. It can also incorporate other ingredients, such as breadcrumbs or meat.

Shortening

Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term shortening seldom refers to butter.

Lunchables Brand of food manufactured by Kraft Foods

Lunchables is a brand of food and snacks manufactured by Kraft Heinz in Chicago, Illinois and marketed under the Oscar Mayer brand. They were initially introduced in Seattle in 1988 before being released nationally in 1989. Many Lunchables products are produced in a Garland, Texas facility, and are then distributed across the United States.

Shelf-stable food Food of a type that can be safely stored at room temperature in a sealed container

Shelf-stable food is food of a type that can be safely stored at room temperature in a sealed container. This includes foods that would normally be stored refrigerated but which have been processed so that they can be safely stored at room or ambient temperature for a usefully long shelf life.

Smart Balance is a company that manufactures products including margarine substitutes, flavored microwave popcorn, and peanut butter.

Danny Dark American voice-over artist

Danny Dark was an American voice-over artist. For nearly four decades, he embedded pop culture with memorable lines in advertisements for Budweiser, Raid Ant & Roach Killer, StarKist tuna and Parkay. The trade paper Radio & Records said, "Dark's distinctive voice has been heard in more award-winning commercials than any announcer in broadcast history." He is known for voicing Superman in Super Friends.

Kraft Mayo

Kraft Mayonnaise or Kraft Mayo is a brand of mayonnaise made by Kraft Foods. It is made in many forms and flavors. A new line of the brand's flavored mayonnaises are launched with a celebrity-based ad campaign by HGTV's Design Star judges Candice Olson, Genevieve Gorder and Vern Yip.

Velveeta Shells & Cheese Brand name stovetop pasta shells and cheese product

Velveeta Shells & Cheese is a shell pasta and cheese sauce food product that debuted in the United States in 1984, as part of the Velveeta brand products. Its ingredients, texture, and flavor are very similar to macaroni and cheese. The product is a shelf-stable food.

Chiffon margarine was first manufactured in 1954 by Anderson, Clayton and Company, a cotton products firm of Houston, Texas. Chiffon was one of the first soft, tub-style margarine products. It was originally available in "regular", "sweet", and "unsalted" forms.

Molly McButter is an American brand of flavored butter substitute that is manufactured by B&G Foods. It was developed by food chemists at Alberto-Culver as a lower-calorie replacement for butter.

Trans fat Type of unsaturated fat

Trans fat, also called trans-unsaturated fatty acids or trans fatty acids, is a type of unsaturated fat that naturally occurs in small amounts in meat and milk fat. It became widely produced as an unintentional byproduct in the industrial processing of vegetable and fish oils in the early 20th century for use in margarine and later also in snack food, packaged baked goods, and for frying fast food.

Fat hydrogenation

Fat hydrogenation is the process of combining fat — typically, vegetable oils — with hydrogen, in order to make it more saturated.

References

  1. FDA. Food Labeling Guide. Revised October 2009. Section 7-L48
  2. "Kraft Parkay Margarine Commercial (1974)". July 5, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2022.