Mrs. Butterworth's


Mrs. Butterworth's is an American brand of syrups and pancake mixes owned by ConAgra Foods. The syrups come in distinctive bottles shaped in the form of a matronly woman, Mrs. Butterworth. The syrup was introduced in 1961. In 1999, the original glass bottles began to be replaced with plastic bottles.

Advertising

One of the main voice actresses for Butterworth was the late Mary Kay Bergman.
In 2007, Mrs. Butterworth was used in a series of ads for GEICO, in which she helped an actual customer with her testimonial.
In 2019, she appeared along with an actor playing Colonel Sanders in a KFC commercial spoofing a scene from Dirty Dancing, promoting chicken and waffles using Mrs. Butterworth's syrup.

Controversy

In 2020, following protests over systemic racism, Conagra Brands announced that it would review the shape of their bottles, as critics viewed them as an example of the "mammy" stereotype. Some reports have indicated that the character was originally modeled on Thelma "Butterfly" McQueen, who appeared as the maid in Gone with the Wind.

In popular culture

Prior to the introduction of the syrup, Amelia Butterworth was an amateur detective character in a series of novels by Anna Katharine Green.
In 2009, then-parent company Pinnacle Foods held a "first name contest" for the product's mascot; the winning name was "Joy", making the full name Joy Butterworth. The character appears in the 2012 American film Foodfight!.