This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling.(July 2024) |
The Great Root Bear, known since at least early 2012 as Rooty and in Quebec as Grand Ours A&W, [1] is an anthropomorphic brown bear used as the mascot (or "spokesbear" [2] ) of both A&W Restaurants in the USA and its operations in Asia, while the Canadian operations use its own version. The mascot was introduced to the public in 1973. [3] The mascot went out of use in the USA in the 2000s but saw a resurge after 2011.
Rooty's appearance is identical between the two branches.
Common to both versions is the appearance. Rooty is a bipedal brown bear with a tan muzzle, orange hat and an orange sweater with the A&W logo printed on it. [4] The Canadian version has a modified face and a brown muzzle.
Rooty also lacks opposable thumbs in his paws. [2] Some have compared his appearance to Yogi Bear. [5]
While often incorrectly understood as being created in Canada, the concept of the mascot was first conceived in the United States. Up until the early 1970s, the primary mascot of A&W in both the USA and Canada was The Burger Family. A prototype of what would become The Great Root Bear appeared in bags of kids' meals of the American chain in the early 1970s, which would be similar to the later design. Bears were already popular at the time of its creation, with examples including Baloo as portrayed by Disney's then-recent adaptation of The Jungle Book, Disney acquiring the licensing rights to Winnie-the-Pooh and the success of the Hanna-Barbera character Yogi Bear. In 1971, an A&W franchise in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, had used a completely different costume for the character, tentatively named "Root Bear", who in late April that year had awoken from hibernation and washed the windows of the cars of the customers. Another possible theory behind the creation of the mascot was a panda-like bear for Canada Dry's brand of root beer, Rooti (with a name similar to Rooty) in the 1960s.
By the early 1970s, A&W was losing ground to McDonald's and KFC in both sides. The Canadian operations were sold to Unilever in an attempt to let the chain stay afloat. In 1972, A&W's newly-independent Canadian branch appointed Ron Woodall for a television commercial and a new mascot. The goal was to create a new commercial campaign for A&W without showing food or specific eating habits. If the campaign failed, Unilever would let go of the chain.
Woodall sketched some drawings and headed to Smuggler's Cove, north of Vancouver, to film the first commercial and pitch the concept of the new mascot. This infuriated staff working at A&W, as it had nothing to do with the inner workings of the restaurants, something Woodall preferred to avoid. A focus group was set up in Toronto to gather public opinion, discarding the results of the prior test in Vancouver. A prototype version of what would become the first commercial was played in front of a test audience and worked well enough for Unilever to pitch the commercial. With limited budget, a commercial was shot in Alberta. Edmonton was initially considered, but the rapid development of the city caused a rejection of the filming. The nearby rural areas were full of trafic. Eventually Pincher Creek was selected as the recording location. For the filming, hotels were booked past their closing season, the bear was performed by a ballerina (Katherine) and characters similar to the Marx Brothers, Hulk Hogan and Evel Knievel were selected, following the bear. [6]
Before long, The Great Root Bear was adopted by the American A&W chain, as well as the restaurants it operated in Asia. [7] [8] [9] In the United States alone, the previous A&W mascots, the Burger Family, were phased out beginning in 1973. [10] While canonically according to A&W, Rooty was "born" on June 19, 1974, older press material given to franchisees claim that he was actually "born" in September 1973. [11] The costume for the character, with an animated-type appearance, was designed by the same company that did costumes for Disneyland. [12] The design cost $US25,000.(equivalent to $154,453.44in 2023) [13]
The Great Root Bear was now making widespread public appearances in places such as television performances, [14] hospitals, schools and in the chain's own restaurants, especially starting in the summer season of 1974. [15] [16] He was also taking part in activities related to the Easter Seals Telethon in 1976 and 1977. [17] Restaurants also handed out Great Root Bear-branded Hocus-Pocus Magic Kits during the campaign. [18]
By 1976 the mascot had become successful, with merchandise such as straws featuring the bear were made available. [19] [20] A hand puppet of the bear was introduced in the Christmas season of 1977. [21] In 1978, the company's newsletter, the A&W News Dispenser, was renamed A&W News Bearer. [22] Balloons in birthday parties hosted at its restaurants were given the name "bearloons" and the straws, "bearstraws". [23] Moreover, from 1975, A&W started printing coupons known as "The Great Root Bear Buck" (currently just Bear Bucks), modelled after US dollar notes with Rooty's face in the center. [24]
Until 2012, the mascot had no given name. In its first year of usage in the United States, a franchisee in Walla Walla named him "Rudy", sounding close to the current Rooty, in a newspaper advertisement for take-home gallons of root beer. [25]
The bear also lent its name to a playground at its restaurants in Malaysia starting in 1990, Bearland. [26] By early 2004, the Bearland playground had lost most of its attractions. [27]
The Great Root Bear, with its own design, continued appearing in television commercials for the separate chain in Canada. Only in 1978 did the Canadian chain successfully set up its own trademark for the mascot, [28] and on September 11, 1995 for his French name. [29]
The bear and the tuba jingle that accompanied him became a long-running campaign, created by Griffiths-Gibson of Vancouver [30] (the tune, entitled "Ba-Dum, Ba-Dum", was released as a single in April 1977 by Attic Records, credited to "Major Ursus", a play on Ursa Major or "great bear"). [31] The famous Canadian composer and B.C. Hall of Fame winner Miles Ramsay helped compose the song. [32] The famous tuba jingle was played by famed Vancouver jazz, classical and session trombonist Sharman King.
During 1997 and 1998, Drew Carey served as a spokesperson for the chain, appearing in TV ads alongside the bear; he was dismissed (with legal action ensuing) after a November 1998 episode of The Drew Carey Show featured Carey eating at a McDonald's location in China. [33] Following the reintroduction of The Burger Family, the bear was phased out from advertising.
In 2000, A&W donated 30 teddy bear versions of its mascot to the Bears on Patrol children's safety program in Oakland County, Michigan. [34]
In 2009, when the bear was downsized from the chain at a national level, the Lodi restaurant (Peter Knight, owner) registered the awrestaurants Twitter username, which was later used by the national chain within a couple of years. Some posts in the spring of 2009 were "written" by the bear himself (who at the time had no name). The mascot opened a new restaurant in Garden City, Kansas in early 2009. [35]
New administration took over A&W in the USA in 2011. Liz Bazner touted the chain as being "criminal" that they weren't using the mascot anymore, while putting him in charge of the Twitter account. [36] A bronze statue of the bear holding a mug was erected at lobby of the new headquarters in Lexington. [37] In March 2012, A&W produced a video showing the bear working at the building at the time of its construction, with disastrous results. Around this time the name Rooty appeared and became official. The following year, in June 2012 (the de facto 93rd anniversary of A&W), Lexington media house uHAPS Media made a video of a faux news item depicting Rooty being taken away from hibernation.
The earliest known usage of Rooty as the name of the mascot, up until then just The Great Root Bear, was on a Facebook post on January 30, 2012, where, in an early instance of A&W using tongue-in-cheek humor related to its resurging mascot, he was signed up for Skype.
Sarah Blasi, director of marketing at A&W, relied on the inter-generational appeal of the mascot and its relation with the chain, and its resurgence was part of a wider plan for a fresh start under the new owners. [38] Liz Bazner, who was in charge of the tweets, [39] created a joke where Rooty was "hibernating" before 2012. In January 2013, A&W launched a new website following a new creative marketing agreement with Cornett Integrated Marketing. Executives were working with franchisees in Asia, where the mascot was still prominent, to use the mascot as a part of birthday parties held at restaurants in the United States. Rooty also got a Vine account and a smartphone app, Burping Rooty. Also included was a "bear cam" function on the website that "streamed" Rooty's daily activities. [40] The footage used for the stream was later recycled in 2018 for a video on social media, Day in the Life. Rooty was also the central figure of the first product release on Vine. [41]
In 2013-2014, four episodes of a fictional reality series involving Rooty, The Bear is Back, were released on A&W's YouTube channel, shot in the A&W headquarters.
A CGI version of Rooty was created in 2022 with the aim of being easily rigged for animation and motion capture.
From the outset, Rooty was meant to be A&W's "ambassador of fun" [22] or "goodwill ambassador" [7] and is, depending on sources, either 6 or 7 feet tall. The chain suggests that Rooty embodies "fun and nostalgia" related to the brand. [36] Rooty is "funny" and "goofy", and was seen as "not polarizing, but loveable". In 1992, a franchisee owner described Rooty as "very fuzzy, very friendly and plump". [42]
In two books published in 1990, Rooty was "a fun-loving adventurer" and "a friend to children everywhere", which shows the opposite of his true personality. [43] [44] In the construction of the new headquarters in Lexington, Rooty was unable to do some basic tasks
When Rooty came out of hibernation, he had difficulty adapting to newer technologies, but had adapted quickly. Suspicions were also raised that Rooty might have had an addiction to root beer, which is in the contract. Rooty doesn't seem to speak, meaning that he has to rely on writing to communicate, though this contradicts some sources within the chain.
Rooty's family status is not clear, and was heavily retconned. At the entrance of the former A&W restaurant in Petaling Jaya, an illustration of Rooty (seen with a pentagonal hat, akin to the design used by the costume in Malaysia) appears with his supposed wife and two cubs. [45] A 1987 print advertisement for the American branch's lunch boxes in that year's back-to-school season depicted Rooty and his wife behind a cub. [46]
In early February, 2013, Rooty became the first mascot to have a LinkedIn profile. Users who connected with the mascot received customized, tongue-in-cheek recommendations. Within a week, Rooty's profile received a total of 22 recommendations. The profile wasn't directly promoted, instead it was spread in by word of mouth. [47]
The profile didn't last long, and on February 13, LinkedIn removed the profile, under the grounds that the Rooty wasn't real. [48] A&W released a video protesting the decision.
On January 24, 2023, A&W Restaurants published a parody tweet referencing the M&M's controversy on its social media profiles, showing Rooty wearing pants, claiming that the mascot's lack of pants was "polarizing". [49] Outrage started emerging from conservative sectors, including Fox News (the report also aired on sister network Fox Business), claiming it to be real. [50] In a follow-up tweet, A&W said that the announcement was a joke. [51] Spokesperson Liz Bazner said that the initial post was "purely in jest", and that A&W has no plans to change Rooty's outfit. [52] Fox Business later rectified the report, but didn't return its calls to A&W.
Pizza Hut, LLC is an American multinational pizza restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. The chain, headquartered in Plano, Texas, operates 19,866 restaurants worldwide as of 2023.
Long John Silver's, formerly known as Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppes and sometimes abbreviated as LJS, is an American chain of fast-food restaurants that specializes in seafood. The brand's name is derived from the character of the same name from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel Treasure Island.
The American black bear, also known as the black bear, is a species of medium-sized bear endemic to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most widely distributed bear species. It is an omnivore, with a diet varying greatly depending on season and location. It typically lives in largely forested areas but will leave forests in search of food and is sometimes attracted to human communities due to the immediate availability of food.
Applebee's Restaurants LLC. is an American company that develops, franchises, and operates the Applebee's Neighborhood Grill + Bar restaurant chain. The Applebee's concept focuses on casual dining, with mainstream American dishes such as salads, chicken, pasta, burgers, and "riblets".
Zellers was a Canadian discount store chain founded by Walter P. Zeller in 1931. It was acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in 1978, and after a series of acquisitions and expansions, peaked with 350 locations in 1999. However, fierce competition and an inability to adapt during the early stages of the retail apocalypse resulted in Zellers losing significant ground in the 2000s.
Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., or simply Couche-Tard, is a Canadian multinational operator of convenience stores. The company has approximately 16,700 stores across Canada, the United States, Mexico, Ireland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Japan, China, and Indonesia. The company operates its corporate stores mainly under the Couche-Tard, Circle K, and On the Run brands but also under the affiliated brands Mac's Convenience Stores, go!, 7-jours, Dairy/Daisy Mart, Becker's and Winks. Operations in Russia were suspended in 2022.
Jollibee is a Filipino chain of fast food restaurants owned by Jollibee Foods Corporation (JFC) which serves as its flagship brand. Established in 1978 by Tony Tan Caktiong, it is the Philippines' top fast food restaurant and is among the world's fastest growing restaurants, expanding its international presence from 2014 to 2024 almost sixfold. As of January 2024, there were over 1,668 Jollibee fast-food branches across 17 countries, with restaurants in Southeast Asia, East Asia, the Middle East, North America, and Europe. Jollibee is best known for its bestselling item, the Chickenjoy.
A&W Restaurants, Inc. is an American fast food restaurant chain distinguished by its "Burger Family" combos, draft root beer and root beer floats. The oldest extant restaurant chain in the United States, A&W's origins date back to 1919 when Roy W. Allen set up a roadside drink stand to offer a new thick and creamy drink, root beer, at a parade honoring returning World War I veterans in Lodi, California. Allen's employee Frank Wright partnered with him in 1922 and they founded their first restaurant in Sacramento, California, in 1923. The company name was taken from the initials of their last names – Allen and Wright. The company became famous in the United States for its "frosty mugs" – the mugs were kept in a freezer and filled with A&W Root Beer just before being served to customers.
Wienerschnitzel is an American fast food chain that specializes in hot dogs and other food products. The brand was founded in 1961 by former Taco Bell employee John Galardi and originally named Der Wienerschnitzel. Despite the name, the company does not ordinarily sell Wiener schnitzel, doing so once as a promotion. Wienerschnitzel locations are found predominantly in California and Texas; others are found in Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, and Washington, as well as the U.S. territory of Guam. Outside the United States of America, there are stores located in Ecuador.
A&W Root Beer is an American brand of root beer that was founded in 1919 by Roy W. Allen and primarily available in the United States and Canada. Allen partnered with Frank Wright in 1922, creating the A&W brand and inspiring a chain of A&W Restaurants founded that year. Originally, A&W Root Beer sold for five cents.
Raising Restaurants, LLC, doing business as Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers is an American fast casual chain specializing in chicken fingers founded in 1996 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Todd Graves and Craig Silvey. The company is named after Graves's dog, a yellow Labrador. Other yellow Labradors have served as company mascots, as well as certified therapy animals.
Burger Chef was an American fast-food restaurant chain. It began operating in 1954 in Indianapolis, Indiana, expanded throughout the United States, and at its peak in 1973 had 1,050 locations, including some in Canada. The chain featured several signature items, such as the Big Chef and Super Chef hamburgers.
Big Boy Restaurant Group, LLC, doing business as Big Boy, is an American casual dining restaurant chain headquartered in Southfield, Michigan. The Big Boy name, design aesthetic, and menu were previously licensed to a number of regional franchisees.
Culver Franchising System, LLC, doing business as Culver's, is an American fast-casual restaurant chain. The company was founded in 1984 by George, Ruth, Craig, and Lea Culver. The first location opened in Sauk City, Wisconsin, on July 18, 1984, under the name "Culver's Frozen Custard and ButterBurgers." The privately held company is headquartered in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin. The chain operates primarily in the Midwestern United States, and had a total of 930 restaurants in 26 states as of October 2024.
McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger stand and later turned the company into a franchise, with the Golden Arches logo being introduced in 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1955, Ray Kroc, a businessman, joined the company as a franchise agent and, in 1961, bought out the McDonald brothers. Previously headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois, it moved to nearby Chicago in June 2018. McDonald's is also a real estate company through its ownership of around 70% of restaurant buildings and 45% of the underlying land.
A&W is a fast-food restaurant chain in Canada, franchised by A&W Food Services of Canada, Inc.
Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the world's third-largest hamburger fast-food chain with 6,711 locations, following McDonald’s and Burger King. On September 29, 2008, the company merged with Triarc Companies Inc., the publicly traded parent company of Arby's.
ColonelHarland David Sanders was an American businessman and founder of fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken. He later acted as the company's brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company.
Big Belly Burger is a fictional fast food restaurant chain in the DC Comics universe. It has appeared in a number of comic book titles and stories, alongside multiple appearances in other media, most notably including various television series set in the Arrowverse.