Happy National Popcorn Day ! While you ’re no doubt fete with a roll of freshly popped , generously butter popcorn , here ’s something else to digest : Orville Redenbacher to begin with foretell his intersection Red - Bow .
In 1951 , Redenbacher and his partner , a fellow Purdue grad list Charlie Bowman , purchasedthe George F. Chester and Son germ corn industrial plant in Boone Township , Indiana . Though Redenbacher’sbackgroundwas in scientific agriculture and plant genetics , he had dabbled in popcorn , and was friendly with the Chester family .
Eventually , Carl Hartman was brought in to experiment . In 1969 , when the trio had developed a come they felt really sure-footed in , they went to securities industry . They nickname the intersection “ Red - Bow , ” a nod to “ Redenbacher ” and “ Bowman . ”
The mathematical product was a hit regionally , but by 1970 , Bowman and Redenbacher were quick for a home consultation and hired a Chicago ad means to advise them on branding strategy . At their first meeting , Redenbacher talked about popcorn for three hours . “ Come back next week and we ’ll have something for you , ” he wastoldafterward .
The following workweek , he turned to the delegacy and was differentiate that “ Orville Redenbacher ’s ” was the perfect name for the freshman Zea mays everta brand . “ Golly , no,”he said . “ Redenbacher is such a … funny name . ” That was the point , they told him , and they must have made a convincing case for it , because Orville Redenbacher is the brand we know today — and the serviceman himself is still a well - known spokesman more than 20 years after his death .
Still , Redenbacher was n’t sure that the $ 13,000 fee the agency had charged was money well spent . “ I repulse back to Indiana wryly call back we had paid $ 13,000 for someone to come up with the same name my female parent had do up with when I was carry , ” Redenbacher laterwrote .
athirst for more Redenbacher ? Take a look at the discoverer at body of work in the vintage commercial below .
