General Mills

Fortune 500 corporation General Mills produces an array of consumer foods, from cereal to salsa. They produce brands such as Green Giant, Haagen-Das, Old El Paso, Cheerios, Wheaties, Betty Crocker, Progresso soups, Pillsbury, Fruit-Roll ups, Bugles, Chex Mix, and Yoplait.

General Mills has had a long history dabbling in many ventures. General Mills in the 1860's was a pair of flour mills under the name Washburn Crosby Company. That company merged with others to create General Mills in 1928. Early on it began making breakfast cereal like Cheerios and Wheaties. In the 1960's, General Mills produced a wide variety of things, such as The Easy Bake Oven, Play-Doh, Monopoly, Nerf balls, and the Spirograph. General Mills also created Wheaties, which got it's now famous slogan of "The Breakfast of Champions" in 1933. http://www.generalmills.com/corporate/company/history.aspx Ronald Reagan was a baseball announcer for Wheaties in 1937!

In August, 2010, General Mills announced it would be joining with the ABC Family network to promote GM's Pillsbury cinnamon rolls on two episodes of the TV show Melissa & Joey, where the product will be integrated into the show. The star of the show, Melissa Joan Hart, will also participate in a cross-promotional effort where she will host a contest online that will address the issue of families bonding together as a tie-in with the cinnamon rolls.http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=133866

The Pillsbury Doughboy, aka "Poppin' Fresh", debuted on TV in 1965. His trademark saying was "Nothin' says lovin' like something from the oven, and Pillsbury says it best."

Betty Crocker was originally a "Dear Abby"-esc writing division that answered cooking related questions that came to Wasburn Crosby Company. It later became a successful line of cook books, recipes, and baking kits.

Bisquick started in 1931. It was world first, no one had offered a pre-mixed baking kit in grocery stores.

In 1924 General Mills even owned its own broadcasting channel on radio in Minneapolis. They aired shows like The Lone Ranger, Jack Armstrong, Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, and The All American Boy.

In 1985, a small 3 person submarine named ALVIN explored the sunken Titanic. Only 25 years earlier, that submarine was being designed and built by General Mills.

General Mills owns dozens of common brands that people buy every day including:

1. Pillsbury
2. Betty Crocker
3. Progresso soup
4. Yoplait yogurt
5. Haagen-Dazs ice cream
6. Green Giant vegetables

On January 19, 2009, General Mills announced a voluntary recall of two of its peanut butter-flavored snack bars in the wake of a salmonella scare. The company said peanut butter in its Larabar Peanut Butter Cookie flavor snack bars and JamFrakas Peanut Butter Blisscrisp flavor snack bars may be contaminated with the bacteria.Reuters: General Mills recalls 2 peanut butter-flavored products (January 19, 2009)

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